A Randomized Link to the Past - Episode IV: Odie the Dog: Last Theft? Kennel Plaza!
By Mento 3 Comments
We're back once again with Garflink, America's favorite heroic tabby, and me, the guy who makes you go alt-tabby (wow harsh). We're still navigating a Hyrule gone mad with this The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Randomizer playthrough, so be sure to visit here to get all caught up and then follow the links in the table at the bottom.
I'll level with you: between my own half-remembered mental maps and some moderate bad luck, this playthrough is in dire peril of reaching a stalemate unless I hit pay dirt soon. There's a few items we could use right about now to keep this train a-rollin': the Pegasus Boots, the Book of Mudora, the Bow, the Titan's Mitts, the Zora Flippers, the Magic Mirror, or a single bottle - any one of these would lead directly to more items, or at the very least give me access to a new dungeon or its boss. Currently, we're down to Death Mountain and its cave network, and then the Tower of Hera dungeon at its peak...
Side-Note: The Pegasus Boots, introduced in this game and usually given by Sahasrahla after completing the Eastern Palace, are a passive upgrade that allows Garflink to charge in a straight line. It has a number of applications: the charge can be a powerful tackle, it can get me to places faster, it can bash through certain walls and piles of rocks, and it can also be used to dislodge the item sitting on a bookshelf in Kakariko Library. The very last one of those is why I need it, though I'm sure I'll make use of the rest.
Side-Note: The Moon Pearl, the dungeon item for the Tower of Hera (despite the fact you don't actually need it in the Tower of Hera), is a passive item that allows Garflink to retain his usual form when entering the Dark World. Say goodbye to that useless Odie transformation, because now the Dark World is ours to explore.
Side-Note: The Red Shield, or Shield L-2, is really more of a cosmetic purchase. It does provide one benefit over regular shields - it blocks fireballs in addition to normal projectiles like arrows and rocks - but it's mostly there to convince you to spend money (or you can upgrade your normal shield in a fairy pool that we can't access right now, if you want to save your rupees). Once we find the Mirror Shield, it'll become obsolete.
Side-Note: The Magic Mirror, found on Death Mountain, is the only way of accessing the Light World from the Dark World. It can be used anywhere, provided there's space for you to warp into, and leaves behind a residual gate that you can use to get back to the Dark World. There are a number of spots across the Dark World where you can hop back into an otherwise inaccessible part of the Light World for a useful item, and I'm going to go check them out now.
Side-Note: The Master Sword is Link's most recognizable weapon - a holy blade capable of defeating Ganon and his accursed minions. It does twice the damage of the normal Fighter's Blade, but it also has a couple of extra bonuses: the first is that it can be used to defeat Agahnim at Hyrule Castle, should I want to enter the Dark World "legitimately". The other is that it can fire a magical beam when I'm at full health, which honestly doesn't happen too often.
Side-Note: The Bottles are versatile items in the Legend of Zelda series, used to contain various items that could benefit Garflink in some way. The most readily available are fairies, which can resurrect me if I should fall. I can also buy colored potions now, or use the bottle to capture bees. The game has four bottles in total: how has it taken me this long to find just one of them?
All right, it's time for the big check-in after Episode IV:
- Collecting the Moon Pearl and Magic Mirror was our biggest coup, as they give us almost full access to the Dark World. There's still a few environmental obstacles we'll need either the Flippers, the Titan's Mitts, or another item to overcome, but we're free to visit most of the Dark World dungeons right now. However...
- We have nine dungeons left, and despite our Dark World mastery they're all inaccessible right now. Let's run through them all real quick:
- The Eastern Palace (Light): Halfway complete. Need the Bow to progress (mini-boss).
- Desert Palace (Light): Inaccessible. Need the Book of Mudora to enter.
- Palace of Darkness (Dark): Halfway complete. Need the Bow to progress (red Goriya).
- Swamp Palace (Dark): Inaccessible. Need Zora Flippers to enter.
- Skull Woods (Dark): Halfway complete. Need one of the three Medallions to awaken the final door with the rock centipede, but I forget which.
- Thieves' Town (Dark): Inaccessible. I need to get past the statue in the town square, I think. It either needs the Ocarina or the Titan's Mitts to move. Either way, I don't have what it wants.
- Ice Palace (Dark): Inaccessible. It's smack-dab in the middle of Dark Lake Hyrule, so I'm guessing I need the Zora Flippers there too.
- Misery Mire (Dark): Inaccessible. I actually forget what I need to do to get into that little self-contained swamp to the southwest. I'll try some stuff for next time.
- Turtle Rock (Dark): Inaccessible. Pretty sure I need the Titan's Mitts to get here too, but it's really hazy.
- Still, thanks to the discovery of the Master Sword, I can at least go fight Agahnim in the Light World. I'm pretty sure he drops a heart container after that fight, which gives us another item possibility. It's been a while, so I don't remember if anything else happens beyond getting booted to the Dark World pyramid. I guess I'll find out.
- And then there's the other miscellaneous finds for this episode: a whopping five new health upgrades, four of which were from full heart containers; two bomb bag upgrades; and a bottle.
- So yeah, that epiphany I got after the bomb bag upgrade: in the original game, you buy all the quiver and bomb bag upgrades by tossing rupees into a certain fairy pond out on Lake Hyrule. If I'm just finding those upgrades across the world, it would stand to reason that the prizes acquired from that fairy pond would draw from the randomized pool also, right? So I think if I find the Zora Flippers, make my way to that pond, and toss in as much of this outrageous fortune I've accrued as needed, I should get a whole batch of different items. Worth keeping in mind if I find the flippers next episode.
Next Time, on A Randomized Link to the Past: Time to bat some fireballs back and forth with Agahnim, and then thoroughly check everywhere to make sure I'm not missing something. I'm going to have to ratiocinate (read: check a wiki) on how to enter Misery Mire and Thieves' Town if I can't figure it out quickly enough, even if I'm really trying not to spoil the "mostly blind run" nature of this playthrough.