Link to the Past, Part 1

Moving on from the successful completion of Adventure of Link, this weekend I began a Link to the Past. This is a game that (judging from the general feeling and responses in the comments) many people consider their favorite game in the Zelda series, myself included. After the switch to side-scrolling action sequences in Zelda II, a switch that was received with mixed reaction at best, the series returned to its top-down roots with Link to the Past. The graphics, even today, bring a smile to my face, and while they're by no means cutting edge, I still think that they hold up. The dungeons provided a new challenge with multiple levels and an almost-3D feel (stairs,balconies and pathways above passages within the levels themselves), and the sheer variety of puzzles and enemies reinvigorated the 'feel' of the franchise, and provided a solid launching point for its many later iterations.

Blogging this game is proving to be a bit more of a challenge than the previous 8-bit incarnations, due to the added complexity that the Super NES allowed the developers to incorporate. I'm going to attempt to not write a novel for each play session, but because there are so many NPCs to interface with (many of them providing clues to present and future puzzles), areas to explore, and dungeons to conquer, I think that this is going to be far more wordy than the other games I've played so far. Hopefully I won't scare you all away, and you'll keep coming back for more. Anyway, let's get into Link to the Past!


Immediately upon firing up the emulator, I was greeted with the shiny 16-bit starting screen, and immediately became excited. I really, really enjoy this game and (not to be looking past the first two games) this is what I've been waiting for since I started this blog. Getting over my initial excitement, I named my character (Link, of course) and started my journey.

The opening scene started with me asleep in the small house shared with my father, and then night was interrupted by Zelda, communicating with both of us. She was in the dungeon of the castle and needed help. I awoke immediately, but was told to stay put by my father, who rushed out into the rainy night to help this mysterious girl. Having nothing better to do, I hopped out of bed, looked in the treasure chest in the room (and found a Lantern), and followed my father out the door. Hey, what self-respecting short elf in green who fancies himself a hero would wait inside on a night like this? So, out I went...

EDIT: As many of you quickly and correctly pointed out, the man who left the house and was found just inside the entrance of the secret passage to the palace garden was in fact Link's uncle, and not his father, as I tried to make him. So, either a) I know something you don't know, and am trying to get Link's uncle in trouble with Link's real father :P, or b) I just made a mistake and the astute readers of this blog were quick to point out the truth. Personally, my money's on option b, but you can make that call for yourself! :) In all seriousness, I checked this morning on the internet and found a scan of the original manual, and it does make a very brief mention in the prologue that Link's uncle is the man who leaves. So thank you for pointing out the mistake. Congratulations, you all passed my test! Someone really is paying attention (apparently not me though)...

Venturing out into the night, I followed the paths that were not blocked by soldiers, and following a further communication by Zelda, I made my way to a secret passage on the eastern side of the castle, that would presumably would lead me into the palace garden. After jumping down into the hole, the first thing I saw was my father slumped against the wall. He lamented the fact that I had been pulled into all of this mess, gave me his sword and shield, and sadly was no more. What better way to eliminate the possibility of a wet-blanket parent putting a damper on the adventure by getting rid of them in the first 5 minutes of the game? I can't think of one either. I took up the sword and shield and made my way to the palace garden, and from there into the palace proper, taking out any guards that were foolish enough to resist.

In the castle, I started looking for (and promptly found) the stairs that led down into the dungeon. On the way down, I found a room with a chest that contained the blue boomerang. Ah, the trusty boomerang, a constant companion in my previous adventures, and a welcome addition to my small but growing arsenal. Not long after retrieving the boomerang, I found myself in the room where hapless victims were held, and there was the princess. Before releasing her, there was the minor inconvenience of killing the guard wielding the mace, but he didn't stand much of a chance (they never do, do they?). Zelda was appropriately happy for her release, and asked me to get her to the first floor of the dungeon, where she would have further instructions. With the princess in tow, I quickly traveled back from whence I came.

At the appointed floor, the princess informed me that there was a secret passage in the throne room that would lead us to safety. I was all for that, so we double-timed it to the throne room. With her help, we pushed away a display and entered the secret passage. This passage required the use of a lantern (good thing I was nosy before leaving the house!), and contained many rats, bats and snakes. Traveling downward, we made to the sewers below the palace, where the princess said that we weren't far from the passage that would take us to the Sanctuary, where there was apparently an old man who would help us. Her information turned out to be correct once more, and (aside from a room where I chose the wrong switch to open the door, and instead triggered a shower of snakes) it wasn't long before we were talking to the old man, who instructed me to visit the town elder (he was even kind enough to mark the location on my fancy overworld map with a flashing 'X'), and said that he'd keep the princess safe while I figured out how to break the hold the evil wizard Agahnim had on the guards and the palace. Opening a chest in the Sanctuary rewarded me with a heart container (hopefully the first of many).

After leaving the Sanctuary, I traveled to town. When I arrived, I quickly revisited a pastime that I'm sure all of you have engaged in at one time or another: chicken throwing! :) No matter how many times I do it, it never ceases to amuse me. After tossing some barn fowl around, and then feeling bad for single-handedly being the scourge of Hyrule's chicken population, I continued on to the more important matter of saving the land. A wanna-be hero's got to have his priorities! I walked through the quaint little town to the house marked with the 'X' on my map, where I was met with an old lady who didn't know where the elder was, and indicated that he'd been missing since the soldiers had started to round up people and take them to the castle, never to be seen again. That made sense (I wouldn't have stuck around, either), and the old lady said that I should ask around town, because she was sure that someone would know where the elder was.

After leaving that house, I made my tour of the town, speaking to all of the people I saw, and investigating the houses that were there. Some of the town's residents believed the lies that the wizard was spreading about me, and immediately called a soldier when I spoke to them (cranky, cranky!), but most citizens were more than happy to talk to me. One man sold me a bottle, a very handy multi-use item in Hyrule, and the more you have, the better off you are. In a tavern, a man mentioned that his son, who happened to play the flute, had gone off in search of the Golden Power, and was never seen again. In that same tavern, a man mentioned that there was a woman at the Waterfall of Wishing that I should visit. Behind the counter in that same tavern (accessed by leaving the front door and entering through the back) I found a chest containing another bottle. What a great find! There was a well on the left side of town, accessible by dropping into it from above, which held a bunch of rupees and a few bombs. After leaving the well, I entered the old thieve's hideout (right beside the elder's house, how interesting), and was able to find a piece of heart behind a doorway opened with a bomb. There also was a puzzle requiring the movement of blocks to allow access to several treasure chests containing rupees which I completed after a bit of thought. Near the south end of town, I found a boy on the street who said that he thought the elder was in the palace east of the castle, and marked his location on my map. Very nearby, I entered a home of a sick boy, who granted me use of his bug-catching net, another useful tool in Hyrule, great for catching bugs and fairies, and all manner of creatures. Near this house, I hacked my way through the overgrown front yard of a man who (after apologizing for the state of his yard) told me that there was a lake of Zoras that I should go visit. Making a mental note of that, I continued on my way.

Having dallied enough with the good citizens of the town, I moved east across the land, in search of the elder. Now that I had rescued the princess, I was a wanted me, and any soldier that saw me promptly attacked. Not that they were difficult to defeat, just annoying at times, especially when one was on a mission, as I was. Even with the inconvenience of the soldiers, I soon found myself at the hiding place of the elder, who introduced himself as Sahasrahla. He told me the story of the three pendants and how they were necessary to wield the power of the Master Sword, hidden in the forest. He directed me to recover the three pendants, scattered around the land, and after that wield the sword to eliminate the evil wizard dragging down the kingdom. Boy, maybe I should have just stayed in bed! :)

Nevertheless, I wandered over to the first location of the three pendants (called the East Palace), conveniently just a stone's throw from the elder's hideout. Doesn't it always happen that way? The palace provided minimal challenge, as it quickly gave up the map and compass. Acquiring the big key was a bit more of a problem, however. In a particular room, there was a pot surrounded by this game's incarnation of the Bubbles (in this game they look like flaming skulls surrounded by 4 rotating fireballs), four of them rotating around this single pot. Sacrificing a bit of my life, I was able to grab the pot and discover that there was a switch underneath. After spending a lot of time testing failed strategies, the only way I found to press that switch (and cause the chest containing the big key for this dungeon to appear) was to lure the large armored cyclops in the room (only vulnerable to arrows, of which I didn't have a bow to fire them yet) over the switch, thus activating it. There was quite a close call doing this (I only just was able to get a fairy out of a bottle and capture it before dying), but I finally was able to grab the big key, and thus pave the way to the major treasure of the dungeon (the bow, surprise surprise) as well as the path to the boss. The boss of this dungeon, and the keeper of the pendant, was a group of six large bouncing and circling knights, who were vulnerable to both arrows and the sword. After using a combination of the two, I was able to defeat them and claim the first pendant as my own.

After retrieving the pendant, I made my triumphant return to the elder, who congratulated me, reiterated my mission, but also gave me a present: the Pegasus boots, which granted me the power of the dash. This proves to be a very useful tool in many locations of the game, some of which I'll detail later on. The elder also pointed me to the eastern shore of Lake Hylia, where he said I would find a useful item. Not being one to question an elder (that's just basic respect), I decided to follow his advice and travel immediately to that very location, exploring all the way.

On the eastern shore, I found a cave that (after using a couple of bombs on breakaway walls) yielded the Ice Rod. As of yet, I haven't found it extremely useful, but I'm sure it will have its uses later on as the game continues. While trekking back to town (to follow up on something I'd seen earlier, more on that soon), I found a breakaway wall near the shore of the lake. Blowing it up revealed a 300 rupee chest. Bingo, I was rich!

Back in town, in the southern area, I found a building that contained a man who told me that he had, after an argument, closed off his brother's room. Sure enough, the left wall was a breakaway wall, which crumbled under the force of one of my bombs. After trying to patch things up with the brothers, I exited out the second brother's door, and found a woman who promised me a prize if I could make it through her maze in under 15 seconds. I failed on my first attempt (I used the wrong strategy and took way too much time), but my second attempt was much more successful. I arrived at the man at the end of the maze in a pretty speedy 13 seconds, and he promptly rewarded me with a piece oh heart (woohoo).

Getting back on track, I then focused my attention on the real reason I went back to town. Near the buildings I had just left was what I assumed to be a library (empty except for shelves of books, seems to make sense). On the top of one of those shelves, there was a conspicuous looking green book. My memory perked up when I came across it originally, and reminded me that I could knock that book off the shelf with the dash power (which I couldn't remember how to do, since the Pegasus boots completely slipped my mind). Now that the elder had endowed me with that ability, I thought it high time to go back and take care of something I was 100% sure I could do. Sure enough, one dash knocked the book to the floor, which revealed itself to be the Book of Mudora, which allowed the reader to translate the Hylian language. Something tells me that this will be useful in the very near future.

Wow, what a long post! I actually completed more of the game, but I'm going to wrap it up for this post, and save the rest of my progress for a post tomorrow. I'd prefer to mark my progress within the games in digestible pieces, so they're not too long that they get boring, but not too short either. Hopefully I've done the beginning of this great game justice. Let me know your thoughts, and if there's anything I've missed up to this point. Thanks for reading and I'll be back tomorrow with another installment!

Zelda Background Info and Reader Comments

This has been a good weekend for gaming! I spent a decent amount of time yesterday starting my adventures in Link to the Past, and (time permitting), I'll be posting those adventures this evening. Yet again, real life gets in the way, as I have a family function throughout the day today. Also to note, I'm traveling for work this week (flying to Atlanta Tuesday-Thursday), so updates may be a bit erratic, but I'll try to make some progress in the hotel room in the evenings.

I do have a couple of question that I'd like to pose to you, because I'm sure there are more computer- and blogging-savvy people than I who read this...

1. There was the question about how to subscribe to the RSS feed of this blog in the comments. Is there anything I can do, within Blogger, to make this easier for everyone (i.e. put a link on the side)? I'd like to make this as easy as possible for folks, but I'm new at this whole thing, so any input is greatly welcomed.

2. Also, is there the ability, also within Blogger or in conjunction with YouTube, to imbed video into the blog posts? I see that done very often on other blog sites (admittedly I haven't done a lot of looking into this as of yet, so if it's really simple, don't make fun of me too much), and would love the ability to put videos of interest in this blog. Specifically, I noticed that the SNES emulator I'm using has video capture ability, and it's tempting to put up a couple of gameplay videos (although then, you'd all be able to see how bad a gameplayer I really am...hmmm, maybe not such a good idea). Again, your input and suggestions are appreciated.

Aside from that, I wanted to give you some links for Zelda-related information, just to whet your appetite for the journey ahead.

- The Zelda Wikipedia entry
- Thanks to a combination of hec1979 and toad64, the six part Zelda Retrospective
Zelda Retrospective, Part 1
Zelda Retrospective, Part 2
Zelda Retrospective, Part 3
Zelda Retrospective, Part 4
Zelda Retrospective, Part 5
Zelda Retrospective, Part 6

Also, contained in the same comment, toad64 made the following mention: "I'm an assistant manager at a local Gamestop, and was feeling inspired by your blog the other day, so I popped in the Zelda Collector's disc in the Gamecube kiosk, so customers could play the first Legend of Zelda!" Way to go, spreading the retro Zelda love around! :)

Alexmoreno left some great information about the Oracles games, great stuff that I had no idea existed: "About the connectivity of the Oracle games. I have played both by myself (you're gonna love them) and you can do just fine with passwords. Each Oracle game takes place in a different country (for lack of a better word), and the first one you play (whichever you choose) will have no apparent connection with the other one. Once you finish it, you'll be given a password that will let you "continue" your quest on the other game. In the second Oracle game you'll find lots of characters that tell you to visit some character in the other country and tell them a password for a prize. Those prizes are technically not needed to complete the game, but as usual, some of them are helpful. Another thing: I can't explain it better, but one of the Oracle games is battle-oriented and the other is puzzle-oriented. They're both lots of fun, though." Great info, and when I get to the Oracles games, I'll be sure to keep those points in mind when choosing which game to play first, and whether or not to use passwords.

Korey echoed some information about Zelda II that had been touched on by a previous commenter: "Hi. I live in Japan and just started Zelda II on the Wii Virtual Console. One annoying difference I've found from the American version involves experience and levels. In the American version (from what I've read, since I never played it), if you die and save or continue your game, you keep all your levels but lose any experience towards the next level. However, in the Japanese version, if you lose all your lives, and save or continue, your levels all revert to the lowest one. For example, I beat the first temple, and had 3 attack, 2 magic, and 3 life. However, I then accidentally lost my last life. When I saved and restarted, I had 2 attack, 2 magic, and 2 life. I lost both of those levels, and the temple stayed completed, so I couldn't even gain that experience again!!! Super annoying. I can't even imagine what kind of person could come up with such a terrible idea. It definitely does not contribute to the fun factor of the game." It makes me glad that I was playing the US version, but in all seriousness, I wonder what kind of logic went into making the decision to include a mechanic like that into any game, let alone this one?

These are just a few of the great comments that you've all left here. It would be nearly impossible to credit everyone with all of the info, suggestions, ideas and kind words, so if you don't see your name or comment, please know that I've read them all and am doing my best to respond to each one personally. It may not be much, but I really do value the fact that you're actually reading this (and maybe even enjoying it), because the response I've received is far beyond anything I could have ever imagined or expected.

Also (this really is becoming a catch-all post, isn't it?), I wanted to convey some of the thoughts I've had regarding how to handle the series of games, what I'm planning on doing, etc. Based on several comments regarding the CD-i, the expense of the system and especially the Zelda games, I'm going to forego playing them for the time being. However, I'm not ruling out playing them once I'm through the 'real' games in the series, if I can find a system inexpensively on eBay or a reliable emulator. I'm going to play that by ear.

Next, on how I intend to 'complete' the games in the series. William asked in a comment if I were going for 100% completion of every game (i.e. find every hidden item, get all of the masks, collect all of the gold skulltulas, etc.), and to be truthful, I'm probably not going to do that. Not because I don't want to, but I'm going for an 'organic' gaming experience, and to really go through and find every single tiny little item feels less organic and more 'completist'. However, I am open to debate on this, and maybe it could be turned into a community experience, soliciting help from you to find the things that I miss. What are your thoughts? Do you have a preference on how this goes?

Anyway, I've blathered on enough. Thanks again for reading and contributing your comments, they're all appreciated. As I mentioned earlier, I'll be back this evening with the first installment of Link to the Past!

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!

Short Update

This is just a quick update, because I didn't get the time last night to blog about the game experiences I had. Real life got in the way of gaming until later in the evening, and I used the time I had to try to work my way through what remained of Zelda II. The one thing I wanted to bring your attention to was this comment, left by prodigious commenter JohnH:

"The dungeon you made appear by playing the Flute is Level 6. After that one only the Grand Palace is left, one of the more diabolical areas of all Zelda games. In the original FDS version, side 'B' contained the main game: the overworld, all the encounters, the palaces, and so on. Side 'A' contained the title screen -and the final dungeon-. This explains somewhat why most of the enemies there have different looks, and some different behaviors, from the rest of the game; they had almost an entire disk side to devote to it!"

He really wasn't kidding or exaggerating about this. As you can clearly infer, I'm now up to the Grand Palace (the full account, and I sincerely hope the conclusion, will be up later today), and am working my way through its depths. I'll leave most of the detail for the post later today, but the enemies are aggravating and look and act completely differently from any of the others I've faced until now. John's comments on the palace taking up nearly one side of a disk makes perfect sense, because it's huge compared to the other palaces.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to address a few people in the comments, who've asked what games I intend to play for this blog. Here's the list I have right now (and is subject to change):

The Legend of Zelda - NES
The Adventure of Link - NES
A Link to the Past - SNES
Link's Awakening - Game Boy
The Ocarina of Time - N64
The Ocarina of Time (Master Quest) - Gamecube
Majora's Mask - N64
Oracle of Ages - Game Boy Color
Oracle of Seasons - Game Boy Color
A Link to the Past/Four Swords - GBA
Four Swords Adventures - Gamecube
The Wind Waker - Gamecube
The Minish Cap - GBA
Twilight Princess - Wii/Gamecube (I'll be playing the Wii version)
Phantom Hourglass - DS (not yet released)

I'd like to ask the following questions of you, because I don't really know the answer to these.

1. Does it make sense to play both the Ocarina of Time and the Master Quest? My understanding of these games is that the Overworld is the same, and the major differences are in the dungeons. Is that truly the case? If so, blogging both games back to back would be pretty boring for you guys, since the posts would be the same, except for my accounts of completing the dungeons. Although, if what I understand about the two games is true (the dungeons are the main difference), I could conceivably play both games simultaneously, on similar paths, and blog about the dungeon differences at the same time. What are your thoughts?

2. I've listed the GBA Link to the Past/4 Swords game as one that I'll complete. If I'm going to complete the SNES LttP and the Cube 4 Swords, are there enough differences in the GBA versions of those two games (especially differences that I can experience solo) to warrant me playing through it?

Yet again, a huge thanks goes out to all of you who read this, because there were almost 11,000 hits to the blog on Wednesday (enough to get Blogging Zelda into the 'Blogs of Note' section on Blogspot). Seeing things like that and receiving such great comments really makes me want to keep playing and posting. :) In that vein, if you haven't read any of the comments on the blog yet, I highly recommend doing so, as there's a wealth of information contained in some of them, and just generally a great group of people there.

I'll be back later today to hopefully post the final installment for Zelda II, so until then take care and be safe!

Midday Thoughts

Before I go any further, I need to fix a glaring omission from the post I made yesterday. In the list of websites I mentioned that had picked up this blog, I failed to acknowledge the Infendo.com website, which was extremely kind to me and posted an article about this project well before it was picked up by many of the other internet outlets. Because of the fact that none of my close family and friends share the same passion for video games that I do, I realyl wanted someone to read what I was doing. For quite a while I have been going to the Infendo website and listening to their podcast faithfully, and hoping that someone in the Infendo readership would find this interesting, I e-mailed the site. I was so impressed, because within an hour of sending that e-mail, Blake had posted the article I linked to above. Now I'm not sure how the rest of the internet sites caught wind of this blog, but I have a suspicion that it was due in no small part Blake and the kind crew over there at Infendo. I can't thank them enough!

Another item I'd like to get off my chest involves a blog post I read a little while ago. The author mentions the fact that he's sad about the fact that I'm not making correlations between Zelda II and other games in the Zelda series, and to be honest he's absolutely correct. In that spirit, I have a confession to make: I haven't played enough of the Zelda games to truly explore the lore of the Zelda universe. In interest of full disclosure, I've played and completed Zelda, Zelda II, Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, and Majora's Mask. I've played (to varying degrees) Twilight Princess, Wind Waker and Link's Awakening. As I started this journey of playing through and completing all of the Zelda games, I acquired many of the games I didn't currently have (including both Oracle titles, Link to the Past/Four Swords on the GBA, Four Swords for the Cube, and the Ocarina of Time/Master Quest Cube disk), so they would be on hand when I made it to them. One more factor against me right now is that I have little to no recollection of the games I've played, with the pointed exception of the first Zelda.

To make a long story short, I clearly don't have the greatest knowledge of the Zelda lore, and I'm constantly learning more and more about it, both from playing the games but more so from the great people who have commented so far, and continue to do so. It's safe to say now that (if things continue as they are) this will be more of a community effort than I ever dreamed it would be when I started. There are a lot of things I expected and hoped for when thinking about doing this, but the amount of comments and the sheer quality of the comments have blown me away. At risk of sounding like a broken record, thanks again for reading and posting, because you're filling in the blanks that my lack of lore creates.

My intent is to continue to respond to everyone who posted in as personal of a manner as I can (I think it took me over an hour last night to write something to everyone who commented), just to reinforce how much this interaction means to me. One of the commenters, Bryan, made a point to mention how civil, informed and generally friendly everyone has been, and I hope it stays just like that.

Sorry for the rambling, but I wanted to get these things off my chest. To be completely blunt, I'm a bit overwhelmed (and that's an understatement) with the attention this blog has received, so if I seem too polite or accomodating, it's because I want it all to continue. So, until next time, thanks again for your readership, and visit again soon (and leave comments if you feel like it, I read them all)!

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!

Quick Housekeeping Notes

First of all, there will be a new post this evening, and I'm sorry for the delay in between posts. You see, yesterday was my birthday, so I spent the past couple of days celebrating with family and friends. Tonight will be my opportunity to get back to Zelda, and I plan to devote a decent amount of time to the game. I sincerely hope to get through at least two more dungeons this evening, and recount my experiences after that.

Second, a huge thank you to everyone who's left comments so far, and I encourage anyone who reads to leave comments. I've learned a lot from reading the comments, and the interaction has been a lot of fun. One thing you'll notice now if you do leave a comment is that I've started comment moderation, to allow people who aren't registered with Blogger to post (at the request of some readers). My apologies go out in advance, because now (to help reduce spam comments) I've activated the word recognition feature, which is a pain, but necessary in today's atmosphere of spamming anything that isn't locked down. I'll be moderating the comments frequently throughout the day, to keep everything as current as possible.

Once again, thanks to everyone for reading this blog. I can't tell you how much fun it's been to do something like this, and know that there are people reading and enjoying what I've done. I promise to do my part to keep things interesting and fun, and I hope to see you all back here regularly.