A Randomized Link to the Past - Episode IX: The Fattened Ilk: A Gonzo Death Spell
by mento
It's time to bid our Garfield-head/Link-body abomination good fortune as he stands outside Ganon's Tower poised to put the kosher kibosh on the mad pig wizard's schemes. However, if you happened to join us this close to the end of the adventure, you'll probably want to retrace your steps to this first episode and the explanations therein for what a The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past random...
It's time to bid our Garfield-head/Link-body abomination good fortune as he stands outside Ganon's Tower poised to put the kosher kibosh on the mad pig wizard's schemes. However, if you happened to join us this close to the end of the adventure, you'll probably want to retrace your steps to this first episode and the explanations therein for what a The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past randomizer run involves.
I had to split the remaining screenshots into two final episodes, but don't be mistaken: we have entered endgame here, and the only reason I went long was because I had to collect everything. What's a good Zelda playthrough without getting obsessive over heart containers and items we evidently didn't need?
All right, let's get this treasure haul started. Ganon's Tower is sort of a lost and found repository for the roads not travelled; if you've gotten this far, you can complete the game, so most speedrunners end up not using anything they find in here (unless it's a better sword or armor). That often includes less useful items like the shovel. Side-Note: Starting the first of many of these side-notes this week, the Shovel can be used to dig up rupees and hearts if you're really desperate, and is used to collect two other items: one from the digging mini-game in the Dark World, and to dig up what was previously the Ocarina from the clearing in the woods - the transformed Flute Boy in the Dark World is who gives you the shovel in the first place. Definitely not an item I needed much, so I'm not torn up that it took this long to find.
Remember that Garfield strip where he straight up murders Odie and buries him in a shallow grave? 
Item #2, and it's this familiar looking chap.Side-Note: The Red Shield, or L2 Shield, is... whoa, déjà vu. All right, so while you can buy the Red Shield from the store - as I did - it's also part of the progression chain for the shield series. You start with the basic Fighter's Shield (given to you by your dying Uncle, usually), then upgrade to the Red Shield via a fairy fountain or store, before finally finding the Mirror Shield (or L3 Shield). In other words, I needed to find this before the Mirror Shield could become available.
I wasn't sure where to find "Garfield with a shield", so here's Izanuma Eleven's Garshield instead.
I wasn't kidding about how many items you can get here. Ganon's Tower has *twenty* miscellaneous item chests - normally rupees, bombs or arrows, but also the Red Tunic - which means you can find a lot of the items you were missing in Ganon's clutches.
Like some light reading over here. I spent half the game looking for this so I could enter the Desert Palace...Side-Note: The Book of Mudora, normally in the village library where you'd expect to find books, is used (but not required) to get into the Desert Palace by decoding the entrance incantation. You can also use it to get two of the game's magical Medallions, and there's a few other spots where there's text to translate: the Master Sword pedestal in the Lost Woods, for example. It's a fun item for added context, but rarely a necessary one.
There are approximately 150 strips about Jon Arbuckle's highschool yearbook, and they're all this depressing.
Man, talk about redundant.Side-Note: The Magic Boomerang, or L2 Boomerang, is obtained by throwing the original into a fairy fountain (in the standard game at least) and can... fly a little further than the standard boomerang. Later Zelda games either added extra properties, like being able to cut grass, or just cut out the enhanced version completely. The hookshot's better in almost every way, besides aiming at things diagonally.
I'm just going to post The Only Boomerang Garfield Comic again and hope you dumb clucks don't even notice. Sorry for my language.
Oh hey, a heart piece. That's something a bit more normal. Now there's only three left of these in the entire game.
There's two more of these out there as well.
One, now.
Better late than never, I guess.Side-Note: The Golden Sword, or L4 Sword, is the second-most powerful weapon in the game after the Silver Arrows, but there's far fewer creatures that are immune to it. Because of the way the randomizer works, you have to find all three weaker versions of the sword beforehand, which makes the Golden Sword one of the last items you're likely to collect. That's true to the core game experience also, where the Golden Sword only becomes available after completing the fifth and sixth Dark World dungeons. Of course, theoretically, you could find all four swords almost immediately, such is the magic of the randomizer.
This is the first time I've ever seen Garfield's foodbeard and I hate it. 
Trying to think if there are any laser rooms left in which I might need this. Ah well.Side-Note: The Mirror Shield, or L3 Shield, is the strongest shield in the game. What that means is that it can deflect the most stuff: the basic Fighter's Shield can block solid projectiles like rocks and arrows, the Red Shield can block magic, and the Mirror Shield can block lasers. It has a few uses, especially in the dungeon rooms with those eyes on the wall, but it's mostly there to make your character sprite look even more boss.
I feel like this is someone's fetish. All three of them.
The Magic Cape. This would've been a fun item to get early. As it is, I'll barely ever use it.Side-Note: The Magic Cape, found in the graveyard inside the grave surrounded by black rocks, is a magic-consuming item that turns Garflink invisible. This allows him to sneak past most obstacles unmolested, including spikes. You need it for exactly one item, and don't need it all to actually finish the game, but it can be handy if you're, say, speedrunning and need to quickly skip a lot of hazard rooms.
"The Caped Avenger" is the level of imagination I expect from Garfield.
Ah, the last bottle. Filled with even more Green Potion. I'll just dump that out and find a fairy real quick...
Just two more heart pieces to go!
The last item in the dungeon is the Quake Medallion. Which is, conveniently, the last item I needed to enter Misery Mire. Well, I know what we're doing next week.Side-Note: The Quake Medallion is one of three magical medallions found across Hyrule. It's the only one you don't (normally) obtain from a tablet: instead, you have to toss garbage into some giant catfish's home and he'll throw it at you in retaliation. You need it to enter Turtle Rock in the standard game, but the medallions needed to enter a dungeon are randomized along with their locations, so instead I need this to enter Misery Mire.
I didn't snap the Agahnim fight while it was in action, but if anything this one's even easier because there are three Agahnims casting magic. That means you have a good chance of hitting him multiple times per round.
Agahnim's defeat means the way to Ganon and the final boss fight of the game is now open. But first! I've got some loose threads to tie up!
This was a relatively short update in terms of progress made, but we found so many items (with accompanying comics) that I'm calling it here. Let's review our progress one last time:
- Ganon's Tower sure was hiding a lot of stuff from us. Today we found: the Magic Boomerang, the Mirror Shield, the Golden Sword, the Quake Medallion, the Magic Cape, the Shovel, the Book of Mudora, two heart pieces, two full heart containers, a quiver upgrade, and the final bottle.
- The conclusion of Ganon's Tower means there's only one dungeon left in the game: Misery Mire. We now have everything we need to get inside too. Of course, it's not strictly required given Ganon's right here, but I do want a full collection...
- Still missing: just the Ether Medallion and the Mushroom. Oh, and there's two heart pieces and one full container left out there somewhere. Ganon's Tower really filled in a lot of missing inventory slots.
Next Time, on A Randomized Link to the Past: One last sweep of the overworld, and then it's time for the grand finale...!