Adventure of Link, Finale

I didn't think I'd be so happy to see the word 'Finale' in the title of any post on this blog, but frankly it couldn't come fast enough for this game. However, before I get to the reason why, I have to catch you up with what happened leading up to my frustration and eventual happiness to start this post. :)

Upon returning to Hyrule, I took the advice of Sam, one of the commenters, who indicated that I should make a return trip to the labyrinth that surrounded one of the palaces. Apparently I hadn't fully explored that area, and of course he was correct. Not long after starting to traipse up and down the corridors of the labyrinth, I fell into a pit and discovered a magic container. Thank you Sam, because as another commenter (JohnH) mentioned, this game is geared around needing magic more and more as you progress, and without it, things might have been a bit more difficult.

After my little backtracking excursion, I made the long journey back to the area of the 6th palace and started exploring around. North of the desert area and above a small body of water, there was a cave through the mountain. On the other side of the mountain, there was a small desert area and a curious grove of trees, but nothing else. Following JohnH's advice yet again, who hinted that I should 'perhaps use a tool that I'd found a few times before', I tried the Flute, but nothing happened. Logically, the next thing I did was swing the hammer, and...Oooh! A square of trees disappeared. Hmm...I swung the hammer a few more times, all the while being harassed by pesky monsters. Finally, I swung the hammer in the right place, and Poof! A town appeared from under the forest. Being the stalwart adventurer I am (at least as stalwart as a 16-year old elf boy wearing all green can be), I entered the town.

It turned out to be the hidden town of Kasuto. Apparently monsters had attacked the original town of Kasuto (where I died in another play session, attacked by invisible monsters), and the inhabitants had fled to this location. All but one, it seems. A nice lady on the street indicated that one person remained in the old town, and this person had magic for me. I made a note in my day planner (every self-respecting world savior has a day planner!) and continued exploring the town. One kind lady said that I deserved her help, and said to follow her. Wait a minute, didn't I see something like this on the news once? Nevertheless, I followed her into her home. To my pleasant surprise I found a magic container, the last one available, in the basement of the house.

After leaving this home, I continued on my merry way, checking the houses as I went. In another house, there was no entrance to the basement, but a conspicuous hole in the chimney. I pressed up in front of the chimney and found the basement where the resident wise man waited patiently for me. He taught me the spell Spell. Wait, what? That's the best name they could come up with? I'd really like to talk to the localization team that came up with that brilliant stroke of originality. All kidding aside, it wasn't long before I had the opportunity to use the spell, as the woman who let me into her house to get the magic container had said there was a secret at the edge of town. Using instincts honed sharp on the field of battle (OK, maybe it was years of playing video games, but it's all the same), I traveled to the end of the town, where an empty screen and a large wall blocked my path. Casting the spell Spell, a large doorway rose out of the ground, which led me to the Magic Key. A nice find at this point, meaning I'd never have to backtrack in palaces again looking for keys.

After one last quick look around the town, I decided it was high time to tackle the palace in the desert, the one that only shows itself when I play the flute. This palace wasn't too difficult, although I did have to deal with 2 blue Ironknuckles mounted on horseback, and they weren't even the main boss. One of the Ironknuckles relinquished access to a room that held a Cross. It was mentioned in a comment that the Cross made invisible things visible, so this would be extremely helpful when I got out of this palace and visited the town of Old Kasuto. A bit more exploration brought me to the real boss room, which turned out to be some sort of lava worm or dragon. The eel-like beast kept popping out of one of three lava pits in the room, fired a mouthful of fireballs at me, and then disappeared back into the lava. The tough part about this boss was not him particularly, but more finding a way to strike him without bouncing off the platforms into the lava. I'm sad to report that I made the walk of shame back to the dungeon once, because I wasn't careful and jumped off the platforms too many times, but I finally learned my lesson and stayed on solid ground long enough to kill the worm. The standard key dropped from the ceiling, and I triumphantly passed to the next room to put the final gem into the statue. The trip through this palace netted me the final two levels I needed to max out my advancement (attack and magic).

Armed with the cross, I made a return visit to Old Kasuto, where I discovered that it's much easier to fight creatures when you can see them. Amazing revelation, huh? I searched all through the town, but the only thing I found of note was an old wise man who taught me the Thunder spell. Something tells me that it's going to come in handy later on...

Now it was time to make the trek to the Grand Palace. Information from a commenter indicated that this wasn't the easiest of journeys, and boy they weren't kidding. No road to keep enemies from attacking, multiple fixed-point battle locations, and very tough enemies made this a perilous walk. The only thing that gave me hope was the knowledge that once I made it to the Grand Palace, I wouldn't have to leave if I didn't want to, because the game restarted from there instead of the beginning. Believe you me, I was going to put that little feature to good use coming up. After a long and aggravating trip, I finally made it to the Grand Palace, and happily stepped onto its grounds. Maybe if I had known what was ahead, I wouldn't have been so happy.

Well, no matter what, I was here. The focal point of my adventure since the beginning. All I had to do was make it to the boss and I will have succeeded in my quest. Of course, all of that is easier said than done in most cases, and this was no exception. As I hinted at in my post from earlier today, the creatures here were (for the most part) different from any of those than I had seen in the rest of the game. There were bird-men, who jumped around wildly and threw swords. There were blue slimes that were superpowered enough to knock almost an entire block of health out of me when I was dumb enough to run into them. There were scores of the annoying dragon head things that swoop across the screen and suck out experience when they hit you. There were these bird things that jumped around and threw little fireballs, and touching either the bird or the fire cost you a full block of health. This was not a dungeon for the faint of heart.

Plus, adding to the aggravation factor was the fact that you could easily make a wrong turn and have to walk all the way back around, not to mention that the actual direction you had to go was cleverly hidden (or at least I thought it was pretty clever, maybe everyone else found it right off the bat). All told, I made probably 3 or 4 round trips around this godforsaken place before I finally wised up and drew a makeshift map (what a beauty that was, done with one hand while holding a controller and scribbling), which revealed to me exactly what I knew: I was going in freakin' circles!

At least the level designer in this palace gave you a carrot every once in a while. There were screens were the elevator shaft would travel straight down through what looked like two blank walls, but if I pushed against the left well about 3/4 of the way down, I would find a secret passage that led to a room. Most of the time this room contained only a birdman statue that could only be reached with the Jump spell. Just like the Ironknuckle statues outside the other palaces, if I struck these statues in the face, I would get either a red birdman or a red bottle. Take a wild guess which one I was hoping for...One of these rooms also contained a fairy, and yet another one had a very large Bubble that stole magic when it touched me. (By the way, I'm sorry for not having more screenshots of the Grand Palace. I got so wrapped up in figuring out where the heck I had to go and dealing with the new enemies and such, it completely slipped my mind to act like a tourist and snap some pictures for posterity.)

All in all, I probably spent the better part of two hours figuring out that I didn't have a clue where to go, or even what I was looking for. It took quite a while for it to dawn on me, but I finally realized that there was a room that had a floor with breakable blocks over what appeared to be a solid floor. After passing through this room for the 3rd or 4th time, my mind finally registered, "Hey, what are those doing there?" Look, I never professed to being the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I usually get the point eventually. Shockingly enough, after breaking the blocks, I found a hidden pit that led me to the final showdown with...well, I'll let you decide what it is. Regardless of what it is, it needed the Thunder spell to change from red to the blue you see in the screenshot. To defeat this thing, I cast Shield, Fire and Jump (along with Thunder), which allowed me enough time and firepower to finally take it down. Fortunately for me, I was able to beat it eventually, which allowed me to pass into the final chamber.

In this final chamber, there was a ledge where the evil wizard stood with the Triforce. He gestured a few times, then disappeared. The screen went dark, and my shadow jumped out from behind me, and started beating me from one side of the screen to the other. This battle was, by far, the most frustrating thing I've done in video gaming in some time. There seemed to be no rhyme nor reason to hitting shadow Link, other than I just kept swinging at him, trying to block his blows, and making sure to reposition when he jumped over me. I must have had to walk back to this place two or three times, thanks to this turkey. Finally, everything seemed to fall into place: I got lucky enough to hit him a couple of times before he really took a toll on me, I was able to use the Life spell twice, and then, lo and behold, I beat him! I literally threw my hands up over my head and shouted a little bit, because I was happy A) that I had completed this game, and B) I didn't have to make the long walk back to that stupid room again! I took a whole bunch of screenshots of the final scenes, and I'll put them in now.

I can truly say that I'm happy to be finished with Zelda II. I don't think I have the dislike that I started the game with, but I still don't think it had the Zelda 'feel'. My judgment could also be clouded by the fact that the last boss really, and I mean really, aggravated the heck out of me, and it's those leftover feelings which are causing my less-than-favorable impression of the game at this moment.

 

My plan tomorrow is to address your comments that I received today from my morning post, wrap up some loose ends, and start right into A Link to the Past. As always, thank you for visiting and reading this blog. Your comments continue to be great, and I hope to see you all again as I start the game that many of you (myself included) have been waiting for. Until tomorrow, take care and be safe!

Adventure of Link, Part 3

Well, it's been quite a day for this little blog. Somehow the blog was talked about on Joystiq, Kotaku, 4 color rebellion, and who knows where else (if anyone else has seen this around, I'd appreciate posting the link in the comments, because I'm collecting them to remember this), which has brought a lot of new people to read my description of the experience of playing the Zelda games. It's more than I ever expected, and more than I could ever hope for. Hopefully I didn't bore too many people in the process, because it's not good to sleep at work! :) I tried to respond in a personal fashion to everyone who posted a comment on the blog, because I can't tell you how much the comments mean to me. I truly appreciate everyone who's read the blog, and also taken the time to comment. But, enough of this gushing, you didn't come here to read this, you came here to read about Zelda, so let's get to it!

The first thing I took care of today after returning to Hyrule was to go back to the area in Death Mountain where I got the hammer. In my excitement of receiving the hammer, I failed to try it out on the boulder located just to the left of the cave entrance that contained the hammer. Going back the easy way, made possible by (what else?) the hammer, I took out the boulder, which revealed a patch of sand. Stepping on the patch of sand revealed a pit, which contained a magic container at the bottom. That was actually a relief, because I seemed to be running out of magic rather quickly with all of the new spells. Hopefully there are more of these to come soon...

Next, I trekked back to the island using the raft and made my way up to the labyrinth that contains a palace. Exploring one of the alternate pathways, I stumbled upon yet another pit (I have to comment here on the wavy lines that indicate falling, what's up with that anyway? A bad acid trip?), which led me to what appeared to be a missing child. Now that's convenient, because someone in Darunia mentioned something about missing a kid. The next step seemed logical, take the kid back to Darunia, which is exactly what I did. I mean, what self-respecting adventurer wants to drag a snot-nosed kid along in a dungeon anyway? Strangely enough, the woman who had lost the child was also friends with the town wise man, who showed his gratitude by teaching me the Reflect spell.

Armed with my new magic, and the knowledge that the kid was safe and sound, I made my way back to the labyrinth, where I worked my way through to the palace. At the palace, I discovered this game's version of the Wizrobes, my arch enemies from the first Legend of Zelda. OK, here's why I need the Reflect spell! It felt good to dispatch with some of those robed menaces. My exploration of the palace led me first to the palace boss, a large...red...Wizrobe. Wonderful. At least the Reflect spell worked here, too. All I had to do was turn and crouch in the direction of the Wizrobe as he appeared and disappeared, and I would reflect his spells back at him. Not long after I found him, the boss was no more, and I was putting the gem back into the statue. I had some good fortune to gain a life level by defeating the Wizrobe (I was that close), so I had the benefit of a fresh level when replacing the gem (a much-needed attack level). However, even with the boss defeated, I still needed to find the treasure of the palace (made evident by the fact that the palace didn't immediately turn to stone). Upon further exploration, I found the boots, of which I'd heard the rumor that they would allow me to walk on water. Hmm, I wonder if Nike knows about these...

After finding the boots, I made my way back to Nabooru town, where I walked right out into the ocean, and toward the tiny island that housed another palace. I spent a bit of time exploring the water around the island, because there appeared to be invisible barriers impeding my progress. By accident I stumbled upon a small path that led me to a spot just north of the tiny island palace. There I found a very-much-needed heart container, just to help me reduce the growing death toll on my character. At least I thought it would.

After finding the heart container, I felt confident enough to tackle the nearby palace. Little did I know that this would be tougher than it looked. I spent some time exploring, defeated enough of those wizard type creatures (the ones that fade in and out and drop fire) to gain a level in magic, and then promptly kicked the bucket. After making my way back to the palace, I made further progress and found the Flute. I'm glad I found it when I did, because I died yet again. This game clearly wants to beat any feeling I have of being a decent video game player straight out of me.

Instead of going straight back to that palace, in an effort to break up the pattern of dying, I decided to go back to the palace on another island where I found the raft. I realized that I hadn't found or killed a boss in that palace, and since that's a pretty important part of the game, I thought I'd clean up that loose end. Coming back a few levels higher made getting to the boss a breeze, and beating him easy as well. This boss was the blue Ironknuckle on the horse, who took a couple of hits before jumping off and acting like any normal Ironknuckle. A minute or so later, I was putting the gem back into the statue and claiming my just reward (a life level).

Having stalled long enough, I went back to the tiny island palace and, after a bit of aimless wandering, I found the boss. This was one interesting guy: a troll or cyclops type of beastie that wields a pretty mean mace, with a long range of attack. It took a bit, but I found the pattern to duck in, get a stab on the body, and dodge out of the way before the beast could swing the mace. Fortunately, I brought enough lives with me this time, and I outlasted him. As I stood over his body, and then moved forward to replace the gem in the status, I couldn't help but be relieved to leave this palace behind.

Next, I turned my attention to the creature that was blocking the path south of Nabooru. On the overworld, pressing the A button activates the hammer. Now, having the Flute, pressing the B button on the overworld makes a pretty melody. Apparently my flute playing wasn't up to snuff, because the creature left in a hurry. The path behind the creature was interesting, because there were side scrolling sections that featured creatures popping up from behind what looked like a fence and throwing rocks at me as I passed. After this, I traveled south to the desert where three rocks sat in a pattern. Once again, my faded memory served me well, because it told me to stand in the middle and use the Flute. Voila! Another palace to conquer. However, before attempting this place, there was a town just over to the west that I wanted to explore. In the town, I died very quickly from things I couldn't see, and was transported back to the beginning of the game. It was at that point I decided to call it a day, and attend to everyone who had so kindly left comments for me today.

Again, thanks to everyone who's reading and commenting. Keep those comments coming! I'm having a blast reading them, and from some comments I've seen, people are enjoying reading the comments as well. So, until Thursday, take care and I'll see you all soon!

Adventure of Link, Part 2

A quiet Saturday proved to be a good time to get back to Hyrule and make some progress in the Adventure of Link. My last post proved to be extremely wordy, and hopefully you didn't get too bored reading it. I'll do my best to be a bit less wordy, but still provide a similar level of detail on the events of my gaming sessions, as the last thing I want to do is to put anyone who reads this to sleep. As before, the comments from everyone are greatly appreciated, and please keep them coming. And without further ado, back to the game!

I returned to Hyrule after finding Bagu in the woods north of Saria, so the next logical step was to take Bagu's note to the river guard and see where that led. The river guard, after reading the note, let me pass to the other side of the river. After leaving town, I found myself confronted with a cave going into a mountain. Being the intrepid hunter that I am, I ventured into the cave, and emerged into a veritable maze of different caves leading through the mountain, each of them containing a differnt challenge in the form of creatures to fight. Some of the caves led to dead ends, and it became painfully obvious that I was overmatched at this point, as I died quite often, although I did manage to gain a level in attack in the process. After having to restart and travel back at least once, I did pick my way through the caves and, when presented with the choice of the cave on the left and a cave on the right that seemed to lead to a path on the overworld, I chose the right path. It eventually led me to a large graveyard, and following the path past the graveyard, to the harbor town of Mido.

I'm not actually sure that I should have been approaching Mido from this angle, because access to Mido had been restricted by a large boulder in the path in the overworld. Nevertheless, I took the opportunity to explore the town. I found a woman asking me to find medicine for her sick daughter, which I clearly had not found yet, as she wouldn't let me into her home at the time. There was also a church in town with an open door on the second level, which I accessed by casting the Jump spell. Inside I found a knight who taught me the downstab move . This move makes many fights easier, as it allows for attacking enemies from above (press the jump button and hold down causes you to hold your sword down for a stab attack). Also, being so close to another level up, I spent a bit of time fighting beasts in the area of the town, taking advantage of the life and magic refills available, to gain a life level. Ever so slowly, my character is becoming less prone to dying constantly, because he can take more damage, as well as dish more out, making life expectancy a bit longer.

Getting a clue in Midos to go back to Ruto and talk to Error, one of the townspeople, I saved the game and restarted back in the princess' palace. I traveled to Ruto and spoke to Error, who gave me a clue about a tunnel south of King's Tomb. This is in reference to a grave in the graveyard near Midos separated from the others by road squares. Remembering something about the fact that I probably wasn't ready for this challenge, and getting the distinct feeling I'd done something out of order going to Midos when I did, I decided to do some more exploring in the areas near Saria, to see if there's anything I missed. While exploring the swamp north of the river and just southwest of Ruto (separated from this area by another boulder in the road), I stumbled upon a palace. Hmmm, I wonder if I should have done this already? Oh well, better late than never, so in I went.

Exploration of this palace proved quite fruitful, as I discovered the Glove and gained an attack level before dying and having to start again (notice how many times I'm dying?). Upon my second assault on this palace, I traveled the rest of the way to the boss, a knight in blue armor having trouble keeping his helmet on. Whenever I whacked at his head, something would fly off. Eventually, he stood before me with a bald white bare head, and after bouncing on top of him a few times (thanks, downstab!), he coughed up a key that opened the door to the statue in the palace. I threw another jewel into a hole in the statue's forehead, and promptly warped out of the dungeon, which was now a pile of rock in the middle of the swamp. Completing this palace profited me in the form of a magic level as well (the completion of your current level's XP requirements when putting the jewel in the statue).

Feeling a bit more confident, and knowing I was definitely more powerful than before, I tackled the tunnels south of Saria again, and this time took the left tunnel at the end of the road, where the sandy area and small graveyard existed. After a fairly difficult battle through tunnels teeming with what looked like Goofy brandishing axes, I made it to the end of this tunnel system where the Hammer waited for me. Excellent, something I remember what it's used for! This is the item that opens up passages in the overworld blocked by boulders. At this point I promptly saved the game, which (as I think back upon it now) might have been a mistake. If memory serves me correctly, just to the left of the tunnel in the overworld that I entered to find the Hammer is a block I could break (I think). I'll have to go back and check this out, if only to satisfy my curiosity.

After restarting from the beginning, and traveling back to the area I'm currently in, I explored a cave in the swamp previously unavailable to me because of the boulder in the front. After crunching the boulder with the hammer and making my way through the tunnel behind it, I found what I assumed to be the medicine for the old woman's daughter in Midos. After leaving that cave, I immediately traveled to Midos to test this theory. Success! The old woman let me into the house, where I found (shockingly) a wise man waiting to teach me some new magic, in this case the Fairy spell.

Something clicked in my brain that this spell might be useful in that tunnel south of King's Tomb, so that was my next destination. My brain didn't fail me this time (apparently there's a first time for everything!) as there indeed was a ledge too high even for Jump to scale, so after changing into a fairy I flew through to the next screen. After making my way through this tunnel, I found myself on an island with a palace, which I immediately went to investigate. It didn't take long for me to find myself on the wrong end of an Ironknuckle sword and die. However, all was not bad, because as I made my way back to the island palace, I found and explored a cave blocked by a boulder just southeast of Rauru, which netted me a heart container, woohoo!

My return to the island palace proved much more successful, as I made it all the way through, at least as far as I know. It seems that this palace is not a regular palace, with a statue at the end, because all I found was a blue Ironknuckle boss, guarding the entrance to a room containing the Raft. Also, when I left the palace, it didn't turn to stone. If anyone has any insight into this (am I crazy, and missed something or is this really not a regular palace?), I'd appreciate a comment...

Anyhow, moving on. Taking my new toy to the dock near Midos, I traveled across the ocean to a new shore. Running for my life and hoping to find some sort of civilization, I did manage to get to the town of Nabooru. This town provided one of the funniest (and easiest) challenges, if you can even call it that, to complete. I found a girl who was thirsty. Walking about 10 steps to her left, I found a fountain, and when I pressed the button near it, I got (you guessed it) some water, which I promptly delivered, all 10 steps back, to the thirsty girl. She showed her gratitude by taking me to meet Santa Claus...oops, wrong story. She brought me to the town wise man, who taught me the Fire spell. This is an extremely useful spell, being a low magic cost, and necessary to defeat many enemies, including the ones in the wilderness surrounding Nabooru. Also while in the town, I found a house with only a bat in it. Jumping up to the bat as a person netted me only a "...." response. However, flying up to the bat as a fairy garnered me a clue about finding a heart over the ocean.

Back outside of town, in a manner similar to that as I used at Midos, I earned enough experience to increase my magic level by defeating the spider-type creatures around the town (they were invincible to everything except fireballs, from the handy Fire spell). After doing this, I traveled north through a cave in the mountain, which eventually led me to the mountain town of Darunia. In the town, I used the Jump spell to get up on top of a roof on a home, and go down the chimney. I was tipped off when, while jumping my way through the town, I bumped my head on a solid roof. The only time a house in town has a solid roof is when you can walk on it. After dropping down the chimney, I found myself in the home of a knight, who (instead of throwing me out or calling the authorities and arresting me for breaking and entering) taught me the upstab move.

At this point, real life intruded once again, and I had to sheath my sword for the time being. However, I feel that the day was a huge success, based on the amount I accomplished. I hope you enjoy my accounts, and stay tuned for further updates in my quest to defeat Ganon (again). Thanks for reading and I'll be back soon!

Adventure of Link, Part 1

First of all, before I start to discuss my adventures in Hyrule once again, I need to make it known that the Adventure of Link is my least favorite Zelda game (of the games I've played so far). The first game was so much fun and really captured my imagination, while the second game strayed too far from the formula already established. To go from a top-down game based on item acquisition to a side-view, experience-based game didn't work for me (and for many others, I believe). Because I really didn't like the game, I have very little memory for the game, its secrets, even the storyline (but I'l bet it involves a princess named Zelda and a bad guy named Ganon). Apparently I neither liked or disliked the game enough to form lasting memories of the experience, so hopefully I'll have more fun this time through.

It's interesting to note that this isn't the only notable Nintendo sequel that strayed far from the established formula of its hugely successful predecessor. Super Mario Bros. 2 (an adaptation of the Japanese game Doki Doki Panic, just containing some Mario characters and items) also ventured far from the original Super Mario Bros., but in sharp contrast to Adventure of Link, I really enjoyed the game. Even to this day, I still catch myself humming some of the music, simply because it was so catchy. Also, the gameplay in Mario 2 was not so radically different that I couldn't enjoy it. Yes, there was the aspect of pulling up vegetables (where did that come from anyway?), but at least there was still the running and jumping that made the original so much fun.

But, enough of that pithy discussion. You didn't come here to read about Super Mario Bros. 2, you came to hear about Zelda. Well, thank you for your patience (clearly you're patient if you're still reading this), and on with my accounts playing the Adventure of Link!


One thing about the older Nintendo games is that if you don't read the manual (I don't have the manual for this) or watch the opening cinematics (I'm not even sure if this game has the cinematic I speak of, but if it does I haven't watched it yet), you're going to be completely lost as to what the story centers on. I simply fired up the game (on the Nestopia emulator again, to take advantage of the screenshot possibilities) and pressed the Start button. Before I knew it, I was standing in a palace of some sort with what I assumed was Zelda lying in what appeared to be a bier or monument (think of how they portrayed Snow White in the Disney cartoon after eating the poisoned apple), and I had no clue why she was there or what I had to do to wake her up. Putting my faith in the game's developers, that this would be revealed to me after a time, and satisfying myself with the fact that there was nothing I could do at the moment to wake her up (would have been a pretty boring game if I could, wouldn't it?), I left the palace in search of...well, I hoped I'd find out what I was searching for.

As a side note: If anyone reading this would like to post a comment explaining a bit of the back story for this game, I'd appreciate it. I know it's not terribly deep, but just knowing some of the story would be a big help. I'd go search it out myself, but as I promised not to use any more walkthroughs on any of the Zelda games, I'm forbidding myself to visit any website related to Zelda until after all of the games are complete. Thus, your help would be most useful...

My first stop after leaving the palace was the closest town, just southeast of the palace, called Rauru. I wandered into the town, speaking to the townspeople, hoping for a clue as to where to go next. I ran into a girl who invited me into her home, and healed my wounds. Another girl (they make 'em real friendly in Hyrule, I guess) invited me in to talk to the wise man of the village. This wise man, out of the goodness of his heart, taught me the Shield spell. With that (and a few more brilliant comments from the random passersby) I set back out into the wild to find my next objective.

I traveled north to a cave up in the middle of some sand, but I figured out pretty quickly it was too early for me to be there, as it was all dark and I couldn't see the enemies. I then traveled east, to a cave in the mountain surrounded by forest, and entered. Hmmm, this one is dark too, but I did see an opening on the other side of the mountain, so I took a chance in this cave. It's pretty impressive how an elf, probably 5'7" or 5'8" at the most, could see clear over the mountains, don't you think? Ahh, the joy of top-down mapping. :) Anyway, there turned out to be only one minor monster in this dark cave, and I reappeared in the open on the other side of the mountain, as I had expected.

I traveled to the northeast, across an expanse of sandy desert, and discovered a palace near the tip of a penninsula. Being brave (or foolish, I haven't decided which yet), I ventured in. A statue of a suit of armor greeted me at the entrance, and a bit past that was an elevator. I took the elevator down (ignoring the fact that this hardly seemed like the place to find an elevator), and started my assault of the palace. This so-called 'assault' consisted of me wandering around, exploring all of the avenues by process of elimination, and dying frequently. It's pretty clear I won't have but a single death on my record for this game; there's going to be some prolific dying in my future. Before losing all three lives you start with at the beginning of each game session, I did manage to find and acquire a candle, then died soon thereafter.

On the way back to the palace (when you lose all your lives, you're transported back to the palace where you started), the use of the candle became clear. The cave through the mountain, which was dark, now was perfectly lit. At least I didn't die in vain! After re-emerging into the desert, I went southeast instead of northeast toward the palace, to see what was there. A path, a single block wide, carried me to a forest glade. In the center of the glade, there was a patch of grass. Of course I went to investigate. On the battle screen that popped up, I battled a Goriya (I believe; it was a boomerang-throwing beastie of some sort), and picked up a heart container! Now I was in business!

Fresh off my new discovery, I traveled back to the palace, and continued my exploration. A few minutes later, I was squaring off with a boss that had the body, arms and legs of a man, and the head of a horse. Definitely an interesting combination, but this particular beast was in no mood to talk. I fired up the Shield spell, and waded into battle. Several minutes and two lost lives later, I vanquished the horse-man and passed through to a room that contained a statue. I approached the statue, and placed one of the crystals I'd apparently been carrying since the start of the game in a hole in the forehead of this statue. I was transported out of the palace, and only a mountain replaced it.

Fresh off my victory in the palace, I decided to go to the cave I visited prior to the palace, and try again with the candle. It proved to be a bit harder than I first expected, or I just wasn't concentrating enough on the task at hand, because I took two lavabaths courtesy of an Octorok. After getting past that little snag, I found a statue that looked like an angel at the end of the cave, guarded by a Goriya. Of course, being curious, I grabbed it. It didn't appear in my inventory, and I got no message that I had it. How curious...Oh well, I didn't worry about it too much.

Leaving the cave, I followed the road west to the next town, Ruto. Yet another friendly girl, discovering that I had found the statue (convenient that I picked it up!), invited me in to talk to the wise man. The wise man promptly taught me the Jump spell for my troubles. I received a clue in town, stating that there is magic in a cave south of the palace. Assuming that this meant the palace where the princess currently rested, I went there, and (after a short jaunt) found a magic container. The people in this town also pointed me toward a cave south of town, and told me not to go there without a candle. Oh, look here, I do have a candle! I guess I'd better head south then. The cave didn't prove too be much of a hindrance, other than the fact that I'm glad that I got the Jump spell earlier, because there was a ledge impassable without it.

Emerging on the other side, I really didn't know where to go. After traveling through the swamp which slowed my motion, I was faced with several directions. These directions were fairly quickly narrowed down by the large boulders blocking most avenues. I then decided to visit the water town of Saria, south of the cave and the swamp. In the town, it turns out I do have some memory of the game, because I knew to search around the table of an empty house to find a mirror there. This mirror, it turns out, belonged to a girl who, after I gave the mirror back to her, took me to meet (wait for it) the wise man of the town! I didn't see that one coming! This wise man thought me worthy to learn the Heal spell. That's a good thing, because I could have used this spell quite a few times before this.

At the end of town there was a river (which is evident when you view it from the top-down map), and a house with a guard-type person who informed me that only citizens of the town can pass. Well, that poses a bit of a problem. In one of the other houses in town, I found a blue blob, who (after I woke him up) informed me that his master lives in the woods north of town. Considering the fact that I was out of directions at this point, I set off to find this man. Sure enough, in the middle of the woods, I stumbled upon a cabin. The owner of this cabin (he introduced himself as Bagu) told me to use his name with the guard. Hopefully that will help me to pass that pesky river!

That concludes my first session in Hyrule. Thanks for reading, and hopefully I haven't bored you so much that you won't come back. The comments I've received so far are greatly appreciated, and I'm doing my best to answer them. Please do continue to leave any comments you have, because it makes me feel good (as it does anyone who writes something) to know that it's being read. See you soon!