May 16, 2009 at 6:11 pm (Link's Awakening)
Tags: ghost, seashell
After defeating the fourth palace, I had this ghost following me around. He wouldn’t let me go into certain buildings, so it was cramping my style.
Turns out he wanted me to take him to his house. I found that then he said he wanted to go to his grave. Logically I went to the cemetery, but none of those graves were good enough for him. I recalled a lone grave elsewhere on the map, but it took me almost 30 minutes to find it.
Once I did, he was happy and stopped haunting me. I also got my picture taken. Not sure what that’s about, but I now have two photos in by album.
The ghost also told me to go BACK to his house and look in a jar. My reward?a lousy seashell. I now have 11 of these, but not enough to make the seashell meter at the Seashell Mansion happy. Guess I’ll keep hunting seashells.
Oh, I found the entrance to the fifth palace now. It’s a catfish mouth.
Time played: 1 hour
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May 16, 2009 at 4:08 pm (Link's Awakening)
Tags: boss, flippers, underwater
The fourth palace was pretty easy and uneventful. In fact, the angler fish boss was ridiculously simple. The one cool thing about the boss is that it was an underwater battle. It seems unlikely Link could swim and wield a sword, but who am I to argue.
This palace had a number of rooms with deep water that I could not cross. At one point, I began to fear that I was missing a crucial item that I should have obtained before entering this palace. After some perseverance, I located the flippers in this palace and was able to finish things up.
Now that I can swim, a number of new areas on the map are open for me to explore.
Time played: 1 hour
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May 15, 2009 at 7:10 pm (Link's Awakening)
Tags: castle, marin, ocarina
Finally I have made some progress. First I followed up on a hint I got in Animal Village and found the ocarina. Unfortunately, I don’t know any songs yet.
Next, I followed another hint and went down to the beach, finding Marin. She told me a little story through means of a cut scene. She longed to know what, if anything, existed beyond the confines of this island. She then followed me back to Animal Village. Here she played a song which woke up the walrus blocking the way to Yarna Desert. She also taught me a song on my ocarina.
In Yarna, I found the anglers key and was directed to jump in a waterfall. I wandered around finding the place to use the key then found my way to jump into the waterfall. I’m going to take a break before tackling the fourth palace.
Time played: 1 hour
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May 10, 2009 at 9:33 pm (Link's Awakening)
Tags: bombs, stuck
I didn’t have a lot of time, but I wanted to pick up the game again. I was stuck in Animal Village and I thought I needed bombs to progress. I walked all the way vback to the first village and stocked up on bombs and arrows.
I then discovered a warp spot to jump right back to Animal Village, which was nice. It saved me quite a bit of time. Unfortunately, the room I was able to open with the bombs didn’t lead to anything (yet).
I’ll try again tomorrow.
Time played: 15 minutes
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April 11, 2009 at 11:37 am (Link's Awakening)
Tags: color world, grave yard, logic, puzzle, underground
This game is really growing on me. I beat the third palace, which was quite enjoyable. There was a room that I got stuck in for about 15 minutes until I realized you had to combine two items and use them in tandem. So instead of selecting a sword and some other item, I selected two items and was able to progress. After beating the palace, I did some more exploring. I just found entrance to an underground “color world” through a graveyard. It’s not one of the eight palaces although it plays like one (map, compass, boss, etc). This level has some of the coolest puzzles yet. Very logic oriented, which I like. The bosses are quite clever too. For example, the final boss in this underground palace changes color based on how rapidly you attack. If you attack too slow, he reverts to full strength. If you attack too fast, he drops extra enemies. So you have to keep up the proper level of attack to completely defeat him.
Time played: 2 hours
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April 10, 2009 at 9:07 pm (Link's Awakening)
Tags: goomba, palace, power bracelet, side scroll
Since I’m on vacation, I decided to take some time and pick up Zelda’s Awakening DX again. This little game is fun, despite its age. In the second palace (not sure if there’s a better term) I got a power bracelet so I can finally pick up heavy pots and stones. This opens up a lot of the map to me.
I also enjoyed some of the side scrolling rooms in this palace. One not only had goombas, but had potted piranha plants. There was also a nice element of puzzles in this palace too.
The telephone rooms in the upper level are nice to point you in the right direction, but they might almost make the game too easy. I’m sure I’ll change my view of that as I get stuck in the future. It always happens at some point in a Zelda title.
Time played: 1 hour
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February 14, 2009 at 5:37 pm (Link's Awakening)
Tags: buttons, ganon, overview, princess, triforce
I’ll admit that I wasn’t all that excited about starting Link’s Awakening DX. It seemed archaic in comparison to Link to the Past. However, after having played it for about an hour, I have a much higher opinion of it.
For the most part it plays very similar to Link to the Past. It’s got a top down view, a spin sword attack, and the dialogue reminds me a lot of the previous game. The map system, compass, keys, etc, also feel very similar. The first town even has a rooster weather vane.
There are some interesting additions to it though. For one, in the first cave there’s a portion where you toggle from top-down to side-scroll view, very similar to the NES Zelda (but nothing as weird feeling as Adventure of Link). Taking it even a step further, you can get a “feather” which gives you the ability to jump in both side-scroll AND top-down mode. So in top-down mode, if there’s a chasm that is one block wide, you can jump it if you have the feather enabled.
Probably the biggest downside is the control mechanism. Since this was built for the gameboy you only have A, B, Start and Select. This makes it somewhat cumbersome to toggle items and maneuver between map and sub-menus. Probably the most tortured button combo is the one you need to save: hold down A, B, Start and Select at the same time. It usually takes me 2 or 3 tries to get it right. It’s tolerable though.
One other interesting thing about this game is the story. So far, no princess, no Triforce, no Ganon. It feels like a spinoff more than a main Zelda title. Despite this, it is more fun than I expected and I look forward to playing it through.
Time played: 2 hours
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February 14, 2009 at 12:33 pm (A Link to the Past)
Tags: beat game, map
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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December 12, 2008 at 11:44 pm (A Link to the Past)
Tags: evil swamp, flute, medallion
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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November 29, 2008 at 2:50 pm (A Link to the Past)
Tags: evil swamp, flute, medallion, piece of heart, shovel, stuck
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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