| Zelda |
| Link's Awakening: | ||
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Awwwwww yeah... So Like I said at the last of the Oracle games, Link was seen at the end leaving Holodrum on a ship. Nintendo's Official story is that Link's Awakening happens while on that journey back to Hyrule. I'm good with that. You see, I've already played through this game (a couple times) and that sounds pretty plausible to me. By the way, I love this game. Part of why is because of the software bugs. One lets you move to the oposite side of a screen from where you should be and another is placing a bomb on an arrow to make it a missle. This game had a DX release which gave everything color when played on a Gameboy Color or newer but it also made it so those two bugs don't work. I have both versions but I'm going to play the original black and white version because of those bugs and it's the way I'm used to playing. So there. And now, The game: Keep in mind that this Link is quite the soldier. This is the one from Link to the Past who just went through two other lands and did the same thing for them that he just did in Hyrule. I'm pretty sure that this Link has directly done more for the world than any other Link. Anyway... In the introduction, we have Link on a ship in the middle of a storm. Lightning hits his ship and it all gets blown apart! The next thing we see is Link on a piece of driftwood getting washed up on a beach and being found by a girl who runs over as soon as she notices him. Then the scene changes to the girl's house with you in a bed, her next to you, and her dad off to the side. She introduces herself as Marin (Malon mistranslation?) and explains that she found you on the beach. Talk to her dad and he introduces himself as Tarin (Talon mistranslation?) then tells you your name! ...then tells you that it was on this shield he found near you at the beach and he then give it to you. He then adds that you could probably find more of your things if you go back there. So I ventured back to the beach and since I've done all this before, I know exactly which part of the beach to go to. I also know what's there; my sword! ...which is no longer an L-3 sword, but just a boring L-1 sword but oh well. I can now attack bad guys. :) As I picked up my sword, an owl came out and started talking to me. Like in Ocarina of Time, I know this owl is cool and going to offer hints for me but once again, I already know what to do so I go up north (the beach is south) and get a mushroom from the forest. Short version: a witch makes magic powder from the mushroom which I use to turn a raccoon back into its original form: Tarin. After that, I can finally get to where the key for the first level is. I get the key and then head back south (between the town and beach) to the first dungeon so I can get one of the eight instruments to wake up the Windfish which will make it so I can get off of the island. Right. Back to the now, I went into the first level and just tore right through it. I got the Roc's Feather and the instrument plus of course, the heart that I get from the boss of every level. I then made my way up north to the swamp where I got a chomp chomp (called a bow wow in the Zelda universe) and he let me into the second dungeon (no key for this one). This one was called Bottle Grotto and the level was shaped like a bottle. I tore right through this one too and I now have bombs and the gauntlet that lets me lift heavy things! Oh yeah, plus one heart. I'm at five, now. ;) And somewhere in that mess, I bought a shovel so I can dig up hearts and rupees. I also picked up a piece of heart (remember, four of these makes one heart container). I also won a Yoshi doll! And I found a few Secret Seashells which will let me get cool stuff later on. You'll see. :D |
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Part One: Aaaaand back! I went to the Prarie to the east of the town to get to the third dungeon. Getting there was a process but you should know by now that this is normal. I had to go to a castle and get five leaves for the former prince of that castle in exchange for the key to get into the third dungeon. After getting all that taken care of, I went on in and just went right through that one, too. I got the Pegasus Boots. Just like in previous games, these are the awesome boots that let me run. I killed the boss, got a heart, and got a third instrument. Not bad, the morning of my second day on this game and I'm already three eighths of the way done! :D Part Two: Um, fourth dungeon/instrument. Arright. Well, now I got three more plus the L-2 sword which is the best in the game! You see, this is the kind of progress you can make in a game when you don't spend the majority of your time wandering in circles or going back to retest what you thought didn't work earlier. Not that it's a bad thing to keep going back and keep with it to figure stuff out. If I was just casually playing the game, I would enjoy it more. But I'm kinda trying to get through the list. If I wanted to take my time, I'd be playing Hero Mode in one of the others I've already gone through. Anyway, the next dungeon was the Angler's Tunnel. I went up north and east, into the mountains to stop a waterfall then I fell down to where that waterfall used to be. I went on in and showed them who was boss. I got flippers so I can swim and then I got another instrument for waking up the Windfish. After leaving, I came across a cave in the water where a fish offered to teach me a song but I had no usable instrument (he wants me to have an ocarina) to learn it with so I left. I then got started on the fifth dungeon, but not until after I did a bit of trading so I could get the mermaid's scale (no more Yoshi doll..). I went into The Catfish's Maw (the fifth dungeon) and pretty well did what I've been doing in all the other dungeons; I plowed right through it. This is where I got the always awesome hookshot! I also got the normal heart an instrument after killing some strange monster with a huge head (looks like it's officially called the Slime Eel). I took a little time off to finish getting the Secret Seashells. I also went on a nice little river rafting mini game a few times. Oh yeah, somewhere in all this, I bought a bow and some arrows. That may have happened during the first part of the day, but I'm too lazy to go back and check. One other important thing is that I got the ocarina! I forgot about the frog who looks like he came from Super Mario Brothers 2... He's cool in this game and instead of attacking me, he gave me the ocarina and taught me how to play a song that's supposed to bring things back to life! I also went back and learned the song from the fish which teleports me to a pond near Crazy Tracy's house. She's crazy. Also, she sells you a sort of lotion (which she puts on you) that works like a fairy in some games or the life potion from the Oracle games. So I'm set now and I'll be brought back if I die. Coming back to the actual game, I got started the sixth dungeon called the Face Shrine. This one is where something that has been hinted at is more directly brought to your attention. You see, to get into the dungeon, you have to go the Southern Face Shrine to get a key. While there, a mural on a wall is brought to your attention. It says that the island will cease to exist if you wake up the Windfish. So, going through this the first time, it would make you a little nervous... The world ending if you complete the goal of the game... Right. So, I read the writing on the wall and then got the key to get into the Northern Face Shrine. I did the normal thing and once again, came out with a heart, a new instrument, and a new toy. This new weapon was an upgraded power bracelet. I can now lift heavier stuff. And for anyone curious, the boss for this dungeon was a face in the floor. I like this one because it's pretty easy. I just leave a bomb on it so that it'll explode while he's visible and a few bombs later, done. After that, I started making my way to the seventh level when I realized that it was time to get to work... |
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Part One: Level 7 and only the third day? Seeing as I have the day off, there's a good chance I'll have this one done in Part Two today. So I started off for the seventh level. But for some reason, I forgot where the key for it was... I wandered around the mountain a bit and came across a part that I remembered should have been bombed open. I opened it up and wandered a bit in there and I found the key but then came across another bit I forgot: how to get the key from the other side of a room where no tool I had would help. I wandered around a bit more and I got my clue! Some guy was raising chickens and he told me that a long time ago, chickens could fly and even carry people! I remembered what to do. I went to the town and moved the flying chicken statue. I went in the now exposed grave of the flying chicken and played that life song the frog taught me. It came back to life and I went straight back to the key. I got it and then got myself into that dungeon. This particular dungeon is called the Eagle's Tower. Upon clearing this one, I got myself one mirror shield, another heart, and the second last instrument for waking up the Windfish and destroying this island with all these cool people on it (seriously. I like Marin and it's kinda seeming like she has a thing for Link). The cool thing that I've always loved about this dungeon is that it starts out as four stories tall but by the time you're done, it's three. On the second level are four columns. When you throw a big black ball at the columns, they fall apart and when you get the fourth one, the third story falls in on itself and the result is two floors being mixed together. It's necessary, though. If you don't do that, you'll never get to the roof. And that's where you fight the boss which is a giant bird with a skeleton riding it. The first few times I went up against that guy, I died so many times. It also blows you off the top and you have to climb back up to it. This time around, I didn't die and I was only blown off the roof once! Not bad. Part Two: Last dungeon!!! Yeah, I beat the game. This last one is Turtle Rock and it was easy but I totally cheated. Those two software "features" I mentioned at first let me get in before I should have. I used the teleport and got into the last level from one of the back rooms. Where most dungeons only have one way in, this one has three. I used both of the enterances that are supposed to be accessible only after going through the other. I went in, wandered around, got a fire rod, and did the normal thing. I killed some bad guys, got that weapon, got a heart, and got the last instrument... An isntrument I used to wake up the Windfish and destroy the island. First, I needed to talk to Marin and learn her "Ballad of the Windfish" song. After that, I needed to find my way through the maze in the Windfish egg so I went to the library and read the book on Koholint's Dark Secrets to get the directions. Then I went to the egg and played the song to open it up. I forgot how great that song was... Even though the Gameboy has some limited sound hardware, it's a really great song. :) Anyway, I got in the egg, navigated around, and found the dark corner where the bad guys were... This is the part where It all really comes together because the game doesn't call the dungeon bosses anything other than nightmares. And that's exactly what they are. They're all nightmare aspects to this dream. They retaliated to my being there. First by making sure that I understood that me and everything else would disappear if the Windfish woke up, and that's why they were trying to keep it permanently asleep. Then by attacking me so I couldn't stop them. They went through a couple different forms, including one that looked a LOT like Gannon from A Link to the Past... I died. Then I came back, knowing better how to take care of the different forms and in the end, I overcame the nightmares. And the Windfish awoke. And so did Link. The credits rolled as scenes with different people and places in the island just faded into nothing and we are left with a picture of Link floating on driftwood... He sat up on it and noticed a shadow creep over him. He looked up and saw the Windfish flying above him... |