Legend of Zelda, Second Quest, Finale

"The young boy sharpened his sword as the sun faded behind the mountain. The slender, pointed ears visible through his long brown hair and his almond-shaped eyes belied his elven heritage. As the boy continued to prepare his equipment and rearrange his pack, he thought back upon everything that had befallen him, and had led up to this moment. The kidnapping of a princess, the many journeys through dark dungeons, facing unspeakable hardships, defeating fearsome monsters, all of this to fulfill a destiny, his destiny. To anyone gazing upon him, the boy was far too young to have accomplished everything he had in the recent past, yet here he stood, readying himself for the most daunting task yet attempted: to enter Death Mountain, forge his way through its depths, and face the evil master of this place, Ganon. At stake: the fate of the world and the life of the fair princess, Zelda. The boy stood up, threw his pack over his shoulders, strapped the magical blade, a constant companion throughout these long trials, onto his hip, took a deep breath, and thought, 'Well, Link, there's no turning back now. Zelda is waiting for you...' With one last look at the thin red line the sun had become at the crest of the mountain, not knowing if he would gaze upon its beauty ever again, Link trudged forward into the dark passageway, toward a destiny not yet realized..."

Forgive the flowery prose to start this post, but I felt it appropriate to set the scene of the final entry for the original Legend of Zelda, my assault on Death Mountain in the second quest. I prepared by refreshing my medicine back to red (I had only a blue potion remaining after the 8th dungeon), and then traveled to the upper left screen in the overworld. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I stumbled upon this entrance during a previous search of the overworld for entrances to dungeons and heart containers, but now it was time for the real thing: attempting to defeat Ganon.

The dungeon was a large one, and contained many one-way avenues, whether they be doors that closed and then would not open again, or doorways that led into a room where no doorway existed on the wall you just entered from. This made trekking through the dungeon a sometimes arduous task, as one misstep would cause a loss of time backtracking to get back to the intended path. To make matters more interesting, the Wizrobes made their triumphant return to the game, making up many of the enemies in the rooms I passed through. Having no memories whatsoever of the layout of this dungeon or the location of any of the important points (where to find the Red Ring, the Silver Arrow or Ganon) I knew I was in for a long march through the depths of this dungeon.

After quite some time roaming the halls aimlessly, I finally stumbled upon the Red Ring, which made the goings at least a bit easier. Now I could handle a bit more damage than I could with only the blue ring. In fact, I had to leave the dungeon once before finding the red ring to refill my medicine, due to the fact that for some reason I was taking a far less cautious approach to this dungeon than was probably prudent, considering the strength of the enemies. The Wizrobes certainly did their jobs, costing me more precious hearts than I'd like to count.

Later in my adventure, thanks to some diligent searching of every wall in every room I passed, I finally found the hidden location of the Silver Arrow. While on the path that would eventually lead me to this most important of treasures, I found the room that rewarded me with the map of Death Mountain, which I was pleased to see turned out to be a Mickey Mouse lookalike (well, at least his head). The Silver Arrow happened to be located in the mouse's left eye.

Now all that stood between Link and his destiny of saving the princess was finding (and beating) Ganon. So, I once again pushed into the dungeon, checking each wall of each room and pushing all of the blocks after defeating the enemies, until I came upon the secret passage that led me to the right 'ear' of the mouse, and to the room where Ganon awaited my challenge. As in the first quest, I had my trusty magical sword and Silver Arrows at the ready. Ganon made his presence known, then disappeared from sight, to throw fireballs at me while invisible. I stalked around the room, striking with my sword, to make him appear. After three sword strikes (I believe, but I could have lost count), he appeared in a brown color, and when he did, I let loose with a Silver Arrow...
And, just like that, it was over. The remains of Ganon rested on the floor, the Triforce he had stolen waiting for me to go pick it up. I did so, then passed to the next room, where the lovely Zelda awaited rescue. The fires that blocked her escape were no match for the magical blade I carried, and then Link and Zelda were reunited at last. The screen informed me that I had indeed completed the first Legend of Zelda, of which I was pretty happy.

Overall, I really enjoyed playing through this timeless classic once more, but I am happy to be finished with it. I look forward to my next challenge, which is (appropriately) The Legend of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. I sincerely hope that you've enjoyed my accounts of the first game, and will continue to come back and read the updates I post as I start the next leg of my journey. Until that time, I'll leave you with a bit more of the flowery prose from the beginning of this post, to wrap things up...

"As Link emerged from the shadows of the dungeon, hand in hand with Princess Zelda, the first rays of a rising sun emerged from behind the mountain. It was appropriate for the moment, because the rescue of Zelda and the defeat of Ganon signalled a new era in Hyrule, an era of peace the land desperately craved. With the cruel specter of Ganon's evil ways no longer clouding people's thoughts and actions, they were free to enjoy this lush and beautiful land as they had for generations before. Zelda looked at her hero, and felt happy. She could not have asked for a more proper rescuer, and she knew that, with her freedom and with Link by her side, there was nothing that could interfere with peace and prosperity her kingdom deserved. The two of them walked, arm in arm, down the path to enjoy the wonderful days ahead."

Legend of Zelda, Second Quest, Part 3

Moving on from the successes of my last play session, I ventured to the 5th dungeon, located where the 4th dungeon was in the first quest. The raft was necessary to access this dungeon, from the dock just a few screens from the starting screen. This dungeon marked the first appearance of the dreaded Wizrobes to the second quest, always my nemesis during dungeon exploration. Their appearance at this point in the adventure created even more problems because I didn't have the requisite number of hearts (12) to procure the Master Sword. This meant that the Wizrobes took twice as many hits to defeat as when I encountered them during the first quest. Alas, there was nothing I could do except mutter under my breath and soldier on.

During the exploration of this dungeon, I found a screen that had a key inaccessible without the ladder, so my first expectation was that the ladder would be the major treasure. However, before discovering the answer to this question, I stumbled upon Gleeock (the dungeon's boss) and recovered the Triforce prior to discovering the treasure. The downside to this was that I had to crawl back through the dungeon to find the treasure, but the upside was that, after defeating Gleeock, I had enough hearts to go and recover the Master Sword, which I did. This made the further exploration a bit easier, and I eventually stumbled upon the treasure for this dungeon, the Bow, one screen south of a blue Gohma. Since I hadn't yet purchased the Arrows to use with the Bow, I made a note to return to this dungeon later, after retrieving the ladder and acquired arrows, to get the key I couldn't reach the first time through, as well as defeat this Gohma.

After leaving this dungeon, I spent some time wandering around the overworld, earning enough money to buy the arrows and a new red medicine. After doing this, I then ventured to the 6th dungeon. As a note of full disclosure, the only reason why I knew where to find the 6th dungeon (and the 7th as well) is due to a discussion I'd had the evening before with a friend who, like myself, had grown up with the game and had much more experience on the second quest than I did. He couldn't pinpoint exactly which dungeon was where, but he did make reference to going to the graveyard and using the whistle to reveal the entrance. Armed with this information, I traveled to the graveyard, and blew the whistle on nearly every screen, until a stairway revealed itself on the left-middle screen. Fortunately, this turned out to be the 6th dungeon, so in I went.

It became quickly apparent that the treasure for this dungeon would in fact be the ladder, because it seemed my progress at every turn was hindered by the fact that I couldn't cross small rivers and breaks in the dungeon floor. I finally found the room that contained the ladder and retrieved it, but at this time I felt the need to leave the dungeon (whether necessary or not is debatable) to return to the 5th dungeon to gather the key I couldn't reach as well as beating Gohma (which produced another key). The reason I felt the need to leave the 6th dungeon was due to a memory of playing years ago and running out of keys while on the second quest, as they were much more precious the second time around than the first. By backtracking to retrieve keys, I felt I had a better shot of having enough keys to get through.

Before returning to the 6th dungeon (which also contains Wizrobes, it should be noted) I made a trip to the eastern shore to grab the last heart container on the overworld, the heart that could only be reached with the ladder. With all of these extraneous tasks accomplished, I traveled back to the 6th dungeon and continued my assault. Upon my return, I found the rest of the dungeon flew by rather quickly. I beat another blue Gohma with the arrows and claimed another heart container. The triforce lay waiting for me in the next room. Six down, two to go!

The 7th dungeon in the second quest is found one screen left of the location of the 8th dungeon in the first quest, at the top of a unique vertical row of trees (you know what I mean when you see it). As with the 6th dungeon, the knowledge of this location came from my friend (Craig of Maine Tech Geeks, the other blog I contribute to) and the conversation we had the evening before. After his advice, it took no time to find the entrance, and I was off once more. Working through this dungeon was not terribly difficult, although it did feature two 'Leave your money or your life' rooms, where an old man demands either 50 rupees or 1 heart container to continue. Of course I left rupees in both rooms and moved on. Gleeock proved to be the master of this dungeon, and was quickly dispatched. After picking up the heart container and Triforce, I had to return to the dungeon to search the rest of the rooms and find the treasure, which proved to be the Red Candle.

To find the 8th dungeon, I spent around 20 minutes or so, scouting around the overworld, hoping that something would jog my memory as to where it could be found. I finally broke down (again) and consulted an online walkthrough to find its location. In this case I'm glad I did, because the location was nowhere I would have ever thought to look (one screen left from the waterfall that originates from the pool on the screen where you get the White Sword). The fact that I used the ladder to cross a river and bomb a hole in a wall that has no land in front of it, just the river, totally boggles my mind. Clearly there must have been clues that I missed along the way to point me to this location, but for the life of me I can't remember what they were, or where I would go to find them.

This dungeon was characterized by lots of secret passages (there's usually one on every screen you enter) and trying to keep where they all went straight, while trying to find all of the treasures, the boss and the Triforce proved to be a bit daunting. The dungeon itself wasn't terribly difficult (the main enemy turned out to be boomerang-wielding Goriya, both the red and blue variety), but the difficulty came from trying to work your way through all of the secret passages. The dungeon did provide the Magic Wand, the Magic Key and the final bomb capacity upgrade (for 100 rupees). I did have to leave the dungeon once to procure meat, as another grumbling Goriya stood in the path at once point. The boss of the dungeon (3 Dodongo) were quickly eliminated, and I once again had all 16 hearts and a completed Triforce, ready to square off with Ganon at Death Mountain!

My last post in the Zelda game will chronicle the conquest of Death Mountain and the final showdown with Ganon, but for the time being I'm off to a family birthday party. I clearly need to get my priorities in order and stop wasting time with family and focus on what's important in life, which is of course video games! I kid, obviously, but you'll see me back soon to wrap up the first game and lay the groundwork for the second one. Take care and talk to you soon!

Legend of Zelda, Second Quest, Part 2

Today provided a good opportunity to hop back into Hyrule for a crack at the rest of the second quest. Instead of launching straight into a dungeon, I decided to spend some time wandering the overworld, and try to determine the locations of some items and dungeons. Here's what I found out today: 

- There's nothing at the location of the 8th dungeon from the first quest (at least not using the blue candle). Now that I think about it, I'll have to go back there and try out the whistle (as I had some success using it in other locations).

- Just north of this location, I found that the third dungeon resides where the second dungeon sat in the first quest. This time, there's an empty fairy lake, which just begged for me to blow the whistle. As expected, it dried up and revealed the dungeon entrance. At this point, I passed up the opportunity for the challenge, as I was on an exploratory jaunt through the overworld.

- There's an active fairy lake where the 5th dungeon was located in the first quest.

- The White Sword is located at the same spot it was in the first quest, in the cave near the lake at the top of the waterfall, on the left side of the Lost Hills (great news, because I was really itching to find it by the time I stumbled upon it).

- By the time I was passing the shop where the Large Shield was on sale cheaply, I had saved up enough rupees (both by battling monsters and stumbling into some 'Secret to Everybody' caves during my exploring) to purchase the shield. Hopefully this will help me in my journey.

- The location where the third dungeon used to be in the first quest now contains a merchant (of no real note).

- The empty fairy lake, where the 7th dungeon was during the first quest, contains no secrets, at least no secrets revealed by blowing the whistle.

- The structure that housed the 6th dungeon in the first quest now houses a 'Secret to Everybody'. That was a disappointment, as I'd been striking out in finding dungeons up to this point.

- I did manage to find the Power Bracelet, because it was in the same location as the first quest. I guess they wanted to take it at least a little easy on us.

- Using the Power Bracelet, I found the location where I'll be able to grab the master sword after a bit more advancement. This is located at the arrow of stones on Death Mountain (push the point stone, and a stairway appears).

- There's nothing where the entrance to Death Mountain (the 9th dungeon) was in the first quest.

- Not long after passing where the Death Mountain entrance was before, I found the new entrance to the dungeon, simply by stumbling onto the screen (the upper leftmost screen in the overworld) and, in a moment of vague remembrance, tossing a couple of bombs out. Voila, the entrance to Death Mountain!

- After finding Death Mountain, I managed to find the old man who gives you the letter to the old woman, just one screen right and one screen down from Death Mountain. There's another arrow-shaped rock formation, and pushing the tip of the arrow revealed the cave of the old man.

- While passing through the graveyard, I tried pushing a few of the gravestones to see if anything interesting appeared, as in the first quest where the Master Sword was located. Doing this revealed a heart container in the upper left screen of the graveyard. One down, 4 to go!

After a quick pitstop to visit the old woman, and pick up a bottle of Red Medicine (just in case), I ventured over to the 3rd dungeon, which I'd found earlier in my adventures where the 2nd dungeon used to be in the first quest. This turned out to be a very quick and strange dungeon. In keeping with the theme that some of the dungeons being shaped like letters, this one looked like an 'L', with a small two-room area set off away from everything else, which contained the Triforce room. This dungeon was interesting because the boss room was not directly beside the Triforce room. I wandered into a room that contained 3 Dodongos, and after defeating them, a heart container appeared, much to my surprise. A couple of rooms (and a secret passage later), I found the Triforce. However, I hadn't found the major treasure or the map of the dungeon, so I went back in to find these items. The treasure ended up being the boomerang upgrade, but that cost me some meat, since the upgrade was behind a hungry, grumbling Goriya.

After completing this dungeon, I unfortunately succumbed to a moment of weakness and visited a walkthrough website on the net, to determine the location of more heart containers. I feel a bit dirty about doing it, even though I didn't speculate at the beginning of these posts that I would go through spoiler or walkthrough free. I'm doing my best to avoid this, but I broke down, and in some ways I'm glad I did, because the two heart containers that were revealed to me I probably never would have found without the walkthrough. The first one was next to the location of Death Mountain in the first quest, but it was found by blowing the whistle. The second was located in the lower left screen of the desert in the middle of the overworld, but also found by blowing the whistle. In the future, I hope to avoid these moments of weakness, but what's done is done, so I'll move on...

The 4th dungeon took some time to find. I wandered around for a while, and actually found it completely by accident. While roaming through the Lost Hills, on my way somewhere else, I nudged a stone on the right side of the screen, and it moved. It's funny when you're coming back to a game you haven't played in years, because the minute this happened, I remembered this, but I couldn't dredge up that memory before finding it, which would have saved me a lot of time. Anyway, this dungeon provided much more challenge than the 3rd dungeon, because it was bigger and also featured the knight characters that you can't strike face on. These are rather formidable when fighting the blue variety, as they take 4 hits to kill and are pretty quick on their feet. It didn't take long for me to find a treasure in the dungeon, the Magic Book. This just illustrates how randomly arranged this quest is as compared to the first quest, since I haven't found the magic wand, which makes the magic book useful.

After stumbling around for a while, and having to drink half of my red medicine (turning it blue) in the process, I finally found the boss of the dungeon, Digdogger. He was dispatched without any trouble, and I triumphantly held the Triforce over my head just moments later. However, I realized that I hadn't visited every room in the dungeon, with the rooms I'd missed being behind the Triforce room. So I hopped back into the dungeon, trekked back to the Triforce room, and found a secret passage at the top of the Triforce room. Three rooms later, I found the passage to the Raft. Clearly that was important, and I'm glad I spent the time to be thorough. If not, there could have been some pretty frustrating time on the overworld, since I need the Raft to get to the 5th dungeon.


Before calling it a day, I did use the Raft to get the 4th heart container, located in the same place as in the first quest, using the dock on the eastern shore. The 5th and final heart container is in view on the docks on the eastern shore that require the ladder to reach. Soon it will be mine, but until then it sits there, mocking me in silence...

Well, that's all for now. Stayed tuned as I get closer and closer to finishing up the second quest of this immortal classic. Until then, take care and talk to you soon!

Legend of Zelda, Second Quest, Part 1

After a busy couple of days at work, I finally had the opportunity to sit down this evening and start the second quest in the Legend of Zelda. I'm a bit nervous about this quest, because (to be completely honest) I don't remember a thing about this incarnation of Zelda. Not where the dungeons are, not where the heart containers are, not where any of the items are, nothing! This could be a long slog through...


The first thing I did was (as always) grab the sword from the old man, whose job it is apparently to stand in a cave and hand out wooden swords to would-be adventurers with pointy ears. Just how one goes about getting a gig like that is beyond me. Does he get paid by the hour? What are the benefits like for this? Do they have a 'Sword Hander-Outers' union? These are things that I think about (no, wait, please don't leave...I'll be more normal. I promise!)...


After I grabbed the wooden sword...Where to go? I went to the old standby location for the first dungeon back in the first quest, and lo and behold, it was the same thing in this quest. The first room to the right of the entrance contained some Goriya who dropped the first boomerang once defeated. Sweet! Now I have something that uses the B-button! As the dungeon progressed, it became abundantly clear that I wasn't in Kansas anymore, Toto. One of the rooms contained Dodongo, the boss from the second dungeon back in the first quest. Just a normal room monster here? Oh boy, things are going to be fun...The dungeon layout turned out to be the letter 'E', which triggered the memory that (if I remember correctly) some of the dungeons spell out the word Z-E-L-D-A. Ok, so at least I remember something. The boss of this dungeon turned out to be Aquamentus, who was just as easy to defeat as in the first quest, so I left that dungeon victorious. I'll take the small victories where I can, because it's not going to get any easier from here.


After that, I spent a lot of time roaming around the overworld, looking for anything that might be useful. I admit (in my nervousness) I reverted back to an old trick I used back on the console, which was to open the money-making game cave one screen to the left of the starting screen, and used it to make some cash with the second controller save (after I won money, save it and start again, if I lost money, reset and try again). I know, I know, it probably messes with the purity of the game, but I was desperate, and this made me feel better. No cheat codes, no walkthroughs, I just used a friendly save system to make some money. After I had enough to go buy the blue ring, I went (on a whim) to where the blue ring was found before, and instead of the shop selling the ring I found the entrance to the second level. Great, but I still needed to find the ring...I roamed around for a while, heading toward the eastern side of the map where you found the letter to the old woman in the first quest (not there) as well as the secret passage to a cave. Woohoo, this actually was the place to buy the ring! At least that went well. With new blue ring in hand, I roamed around some more, hoping to stumble upon a heart container I could get, to no avail. I did manage to kill enough enemies to have the cash to buy the blue candle (60 rupees, from the same vendor I made the purchase from in the first quest). Equipped withe blue ring, new candle, and a bit of confidence, I decided to tackle the second dungeon.


This dungeon was a bit more difficult that the first dungeon (who would have thought that?), in that there were the mummies, a couple of the rabbit-guys (easy to kill with a bow and arrows, which I didn't have) and a bunch of the red knights you can't damage head on, only from another angle. Sorry for not having the real names of these creatures, I'm a bit tired right now, and don't have a lot of time and energy to look up the technical names. Hopefully you get my point. Anyway, I stumbled onto the whistle (the major treasure from this dungeon), and later on found the map to the area, which confirmed my initial memory of spelling the princess' name (this dungeon was shaped like an 'A'). I also ran into a Manhandla (who I very luckily dispatched with one bomb, or he would have eaten me for lunch), the third dungeon boss back in the first quest, in one of the rooms. As you can see, they've turned up the heat a lot in this quest. The devs weren't messing around. The boss happened to be a two-headed Gleeock, who was surprisingly tough for a hero with 4 hearts and a wooden sword. I managed to beat him with less then half life remaining, gladly scooped up the heart container (yay, 5 hearts, now I can go try to find the White Sword), and grabbed the second piece of the Triforce in the next room.


That's where I called it quits for this evening. After spending quite a bit of time roaming the overworld, and getting through two dungeons, I'm feeling a bit tired and am going to call it a day. I hope you're enjoying my trials and tribulations, and please stop in again soon. If you feel like it, leave me a comment, question, criticism, outright flame, I don't care...It's nice to know your stuff is being read. I'll be sure to write again soon, as I foresee a bit of free time in the next couple of days.

Legend of Zelda, First Quest, Part 2

Finally, back to the land of Hyrule! It's been a busy end of the week for me, but I was finally able to get some time in Zelda yesterday and this morning, and finished up the first quest. Because I had gone through and accomplished almost all of the ancillary item- and heart container-gathering in the course of completing the first four dungeons the rest of the play on the first quest consisted of finding and defeating the final 4 dungeons and then Death Mountain.


The 5th dungeon was relatively easy, and the one where I received the whistle as the major treasure find. I also had the opportunity to spend 100 rupees to increase my bomb capacity from 8 to 12. Of course, when I found that room, I was around 12 rupees short, so I spent 10 minutes or so, running from room to room, attempting to gather the required cash to make the purchase. When you're not looking to gather money, it seems to pour in, but when you need it for something, the acquisition slows to a crawl (at least from my perception). After completing that exercise, I made the obligatory vist to Digdogger (great name for a sea-urchin thing that hates whistle music), and one whistle blow and a couple of well-aimed sword strikes later, I left the dungeon with the 5th piece of the Triforce.


Next up on the agenda was my least-favorite dungeon in the game, the 6th dungeon. I dislike this dungeon because it's the first time that Wizrobes make their appearance, and they aggravate me to no end. The yellow variety blink in and out and fire one magic spell at you, while the blue variety roam around the screen and can glide over obstacles and at weird angles, making them unpredictable and hard to target. Also, when you are in their line of sight, they'll fire magic spells at you until they go in a different direction or you leave their sight line. They also pack a decent wallop, and a room filled with these beasties can drain you faster than you think, if you're not careful. The major treasure for this dungeon was (appropriately) the magic wand, which produced an effect similar to the Wizrobe's attack. The boss of this dungeon was Gohma, a one-eyed crab whose weakess is arrows to his eye (a weakness we all share). The funny thing about this boss is that he's directly in line with the door and his eye is open (hits don't register when the eye is closed) when you first enter the room, so a quick shot will end this boss fight before it even really begins. I was more than happy to leave that dungeon behind for good.


I hopped over to the empty fairy lake (as indicated by an old man in the 6th dungeon) and played the whistle. The lake dried up and granted me access to the 7th dungeon. My memories betrayed me at this dungeon, because I forgot the fact that I needed to bring meat (which I purchased for 60 rupees from the same merchant I bought the blue ring from) with me to appease the Goriya saying, "Grumble, grumble," and blocking the path forward. For some reason, I also remembered this as one of my favorite dungeons, but that was not the case this time around. Maybe it was due to the fact that it definitely did not follow the difficulty ramp that the other dungeons had been following; the main enemies in this dungeon were Goriya, which certainly don't present the same challenge as the Wizrobes from the last dungeon. The main treasure of this dungeon was the Red Candle, which improved upon the Blue Candle by allowing infite uses per screen, instead of a single use per screen. The boss of this dungeon was an old friend, Aquamentus (the boss from the first dungeon), and was just as easy to eliminate this time as last. I exited the dungeon happy to be finished and holding the 7th piece of the Triforce.


Onward to the 8th and final 'regular' dungeon. This dungeon took me a bit to find, as the location escaped my memory. The minute I saw the tree in the path, a few screens south of the entrance to the 2nd dungeon, a light bulb turned on in my brain, and I was on my way into the last dungeon that contained a piece of Triforce. This dungeon provided a moderate amount of difficulty, but also provided two decent treasures in the Magic Book (combined withe the Magic Wand creates a flame when the magic strikes a wall or enemy) and the Magic Key (allows you to open all locked doors, and eliminates the need to gather keys). The final enemy in this dungeon was the return of Gleeock, but this this incarnation had 4 heads to deal with. Fortunately he didn't provide too much challenge and, with his demise, I triumphantly held the final piece of Triforce over my head. The princess, Zelda, and the much-awaited showdown with Ganon awaited me in Death Mountain!


I knew the general location for the entrance to Death Mountain (north of the entrance of the 6th dungeon, in the brown rocky mountain region of the map) but I wasn't quite sure exactly where until I stumbled onto the screen with the two identical round rock formations in the middle of the path. It instantly clicked that I was in the right place, and my suspicion was confirmed with one bomb. The ominous Death Mountain dungeon stood between me and a date with destiny (well, Ganon at least). Along with the entrance, I had really forgotten how difficult (in relation to the previous dungeons) this challenge was, with most of the rooms containing Like-Likes (shield eaters), Wizrobes, or a combination of the two. The other fact I forgot was how many rooms there were in the place, and how tricky it sometimes was to get around. Using liberal amounts of bombs and life potions (I left the dungeon twice to refill my potions), I stumbled through the dungeon, and found the Silver Arrow (the weapon required to kill Ganon), and the Red Ring (cuts the damage suffered by 3/4, thus more effective than the Blue Ring I currently carried), but not without some close calls and hairy encounters.


Finally, it was time to face off with Ganon. I entered the room and started the encounter. Maybe it was because I didn't possess the Red Ring when I first challenged him years ago, or maybe it was because I have so much more video game experience, but this final battle was much less difficult than I remember. Ganon is visible when you first enter the room, and then he disappears. Your job is to move about the room, striking where you think Ganon is, and when you land a strike he will appear briefly and disappear. After you do this enough times (two or three should be sufficient), he will appear but in a brown color, as opposed to his normal blue hue. It is at this time you should unleash a Silver Arrow into him, and if you are successful at this, Ganon will explode into a puddle of brown goo, with the Second Triforce nestled on top. I grabbed it and entered the next room, where Zelda sat, behind some flames (quickly dispatched with swings of the sword) waiting patiently for someone to rescue her. I approached her and the game switched to the victory sequence.



Success! I'm now through the first half of the Legend of Zelda. My next task: take on the much more challenging Second Quest, which uses the same overworld, but with all of the items, heart containers and dungeon locations scrambled around. The dungeons are also much more difficult than their First Quest counterparts. I'm admittedly a bit of a disadvantage in this attempt, because I remember next to nothing about where things are and that could prove a stiff challenge. I'll be back soon with an update on how I'm progressing in the Second Quest, as real-life time allows.

Legend of Zelda, First Quest, Part 1

Well, I'm back with some progress to report. I was able to get the emulator and SNES controller talking nicely with each other (even though I played Zelda originally with the square NES controller, the SNES controller holds a spot near and dear to my hear), and with that, I launched my return journey to the land of Hyrule, in the Legend of Zelda. By the way, please bear with me as I struggle to master the art of working with this blog and the screenshots I've taken. I'm sure that the layout and structure will look a bit clunky for a while, until I really get the hang of it, but I am trying, honest!

I struggled with how to begin the game, for a couple of reasons. Zelda was definitely a game that you played differently the second and subsequent times through, as opposed to your first time. This is due to the fact that, unlike more modern titles, once you learn the secret locations of many items, places, etc. you have access to them from the outset. There are exceptions to this, such as heart containers reachable only by raft or ladder, but there are several heart containers that you can get essentially from the beginning, simply by being lucky enough to have a bomb drop by a vanquished foe. I resisted the urge to go this route for the first dungeon, opting to venture forth armed only with the Wooden Sword the kind old man gave me at the outset. The picture to the right should be extremely familiar (hopefully) to many of you, and I tossed it in for nostalgia purposes.

Defeating the first dungeon, which saw my little Link acquire the starter boomerang and the bow, was relatively uneventful. I was pleasantly surprised to realize how much I did remember, at least of this particular location in the game. It was nice to see good old Aquamentus again, although he probably wasn't too excited to see me. Several well-placed swords tossed from across the room felled him quickly, and with that I claimed my reward, the first piece of the Triforce.

After exiting the dungeon, the urge to be as powerful as possible, got the better of me, and I went out in search of the items I knew I could grab with very little difficulty. The heart container near the desert (on the screen with the brown spiders, with a bomb required to open the entrance), the heart container in the lower portion of Hyrule, about 4 screens to the right of where you start the game (also requiring a bomb to open the entrance), and the White Sword were soon within my little elven grasp. During my travels through the first dungeon and the subsequent trips to gather heart containers, I realized I had earned enough rupees to purchase the blue candle from the shop 1 screen up and one screen left from the start point. This opened up another heart container location (pictured at the right), and also the hidden shop one screen to the left of this heart container that has the cheapest price on the large shield in the game. Being freshly poor from the blue candle acquisition, this item would have to wait a bit.

Next I was off to the second dungeon, this one being moon-shaped in its layout. The major treasure to be gained in this dungeon was the upgraded boomerang. This is something I never understood about the game; why give us an item in one dungeon and then upgrade it the next? Why not have the upgrade in the third dungeon instead? Oh well, those are questions that may never be answered (not that they're all that important anyway). My date with Dodongo went as planned: he ate something that didn't agree with him, a couple of things actually, and had to leave. He was kind enough to leave behind a heart container and the second piece of the Triforce. The one thing I really enjoy about this dungeon is the appearance of Moldorm (pictured), one of only two appearances in the first quest of these little beasties. Don't ask me why I like them, I just do. :)

The trip into the second dungeon was profitable enough for me to buy both the large shield and arrows to go with my bow (at a grand total of 170 rupees), after which I ventured to the third dungeon. The trip to this place netted me the raft (necessary to get to the fourth dungeon and a heart container) and the third piece of Triforce. The boss of this dungeon, Manhandla, could have been a bit of an issue for me, as I arrived at his room a bit low on hearts. I was lucky enough to have him wander directly over a bomb I placed, and eliminated all four 'mouths' with one blast. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

After completion of the third dungeon, I took some time to visit a few points of interest in the overworld. I used the raft to get another heart container, I visited the old man by the sea who happened to have a letter for an old woman (who, upon receipt of this letter, sells medicine), and I visited some of those 'It's a secret to everybody!' places scattered about the map. I did remember to venture to the one that is accessible only by the secret passage (near where you get the letter for the old woman), which netted me 100 rupees. By killing everything I saw, and visiting a few of those rupee caves, I was able to earn enough to buy the blue ring, available from a hidden vendor 3 screens north of the old woman's cave, underneath a statue you bring to life by touching. The ring cost 250 rupees, but as veterans of the game know it's completely worth it, as it halves the damage you receive.

After this little jaunt, I hopped on the raft over to the fourth dungeon. I consider this dungeon a pain in the butt, because it is the first dungeon to have dark rooms that can be lit with the candle, and the main enemies you encounter are the incredibly annoying Vire. I dread this dungeon because of them. Otherwise, dealing with the annoyances allowed me to find the ladder, and meet the first incarnation of Gleeock, this one of the 2-headed variety. He was quickly dispatched, and I received a heart container and the fourth piece of the Triforce for my troubles.

Now things were getting interesting. Having the ladder allowed me to acquire the last available heart container in the overworld (on the eastern coast, on a dock of sorts), and brought my heart total to 12. This magic number meant that I was now elligible to wield the Master Sword, which lay in the graveyard on the western side of Hyrule. On the way to the graveyard, I stopped to grab the Power Bracelet, hidden under a statue a few screens away. Then it was on to the Master Sword, which I held above my head triumphantly after a few frantic moments of figuring out which grave concealed the stairway to the old man.

It was at this point that I hung up the game for the evening, as I had household chores and a lovely wife to attend to. Next time, I'll work my way through the latter half of the first quest, and hopefully have a tale of victory to tell after a meeting with Ganon deep inside Death Mountain.

Thank you for reading so far, I hope you've enjoyed it. I'll be back soon with more on my journeys!