Howdy, all, to this week's second episode of my The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past randomizer run. If you're new, I'd break the ice, but we already kinda did that last episode by shattering the Ice Palace and its guardian. Instead, I might recommend you visit here for all the deets and greets. Shoo, go on now.
The rest of you, who have been loyally following Garflink's expedition through item scarcity hell and back, will be encouraged by a recent shift in fortunes that leaves us packed to the gills (as it were) with new equipment and opportunities alike. All that's left is deciding where to go first. Y'all ready for a boss-stomping montage?
Hey, guess what happened again? First chest in the Swamp Palace gets me the one item I needed most: The Ice Rod!
Side-Note: The Ice Rod works the same way as the Fire Rod, except it spits out a cold ray that can freeze enemies where they stand. You normally have to take a little detour around Lake Hylia to find it, but the randomizer's been withholding, as is its wont. I only really need the Ice Rod for defeating Twinexx at Turtle Rock at this point in the run: I'm all set for weaponry.
Hey, it's me, the good humor man.The only other acquisition of note in here. There's exactly one "big" quiver and bomb-bag upgrade, which you would only receive after donating enough to earn all the small ones. I'm not sure if it works the same way for the randomizer though.Arrghus is the Swamp Palace's boss and another one that makes the tactical error of being a gigantic eye. Once you get all these eye boogers out the way, he goes down after a single Silver Arrow. Man, I love these things.Love to go through whole dungeons without the map. Thanks for holding onto this, big guy.This is actually the first crystal, the one you normally find in the Palace of Darkness, but as far as Garflink's concerned it's our fifth.Told you I'd be back. Silver Arrows aren't ideal here: the heads are immune, and the tough snake creature that emerges at the end moves too quickly. The L3 sword makes short work of it, though.Whatever.And that makes six crystals total. As with Thieves' Town and Ice Palace, this crystal is where it ought to be (besides in my pocket).Before I head to Skull Woods and potentially hit another stalemate, I'd better complete some errands. First, reuniting this frog with his blacksmith brother.More bombs? Fine. Just for the record, I'm pretty sure I won't need any more of these, OK game?You have to wallop a certain set of pegs to access this secret cave, but I always forget which ones so... I just bashed all of them. As well as a few skelecuccos.Game? Remember our conversation a few minutes ago? Just... I'm good for bombs, all right?Now that we're done over there, it's time to take our chest for a walk.Lyman helpfully cracks it open for another heart piece. That puts us up to fifteen heart containers!As far as I know, that's all the overworld scavenging I can do. Time to finish what I've put off for too long.Game... look, I'm not angry. Just disappointed. It does feel like the universe is sending me a message, though. A message to blow shit up.Mothula's another boss that isn't courteous enough to take a single Silver Arrow and croak, so I have to defeat him the normal way. Ugh, effort.And voila, the punishment I get for putting off Skull Woods for so long. With only a few bosses left to go, I finally get the best armor in the game.
Side-Note: The Red Mail is Garflink's second armor upgrade, which reduces all damage to 1/4 of its original potency. Like the Silver Arrows, the game normally keeps this out of your reach until the very end of the game - Ganon's Tower, the final dungeon, specifically - but there's always a chance in a randomizer run to get it way early and stride across Hyrule feeling invulnerable.
The old Pied Piper ploy strikes again! (Look, you figure out how to search for Garfield in a red suit.)The Red Mail doesn't actually aid progression at all, useful as it may be, but this crystal does. It's the sixth one, which means the Dark World Bomb Shop now has new inventory...For whatever reason, this guy won't sell the Fat Man to the Fat Cat until he has the fifth and sixth crystals. In the core game, that's to stop you from getting the Silver Arrows and best sword too early, but in a Randomizer run you may end up with those two crystals after the first two dungeons you enter. All luck of the draw.The Super Bomb's needed to get into the pyramid to see the corpulent fairy. As far I remember, this is the only broken wall that requires it.Like before, instead of tossing items into the fountain and getting back random junk, the game cuts out the middle fairy and gives you two chests that correspond to the two upgrades available. Not that you're likely to find those upgrades here.Oh, but we do get the Magic Powder instead. I've been looking for this; it'd be handy to have for the two remaining dungeons.
Side-Note: The Magic Powder, given by the witch in exchange for a Mushroom from the Lost Woods, has a couple of miscellaneous uses that the game expects the player to find on their own. The application I'm probably going to use the most is turning anti-fairies, a common sight in dungeons, into life-restoring fairies. There's also a free item I can get if I use it in a certain place...
I searched for "Magic Powder", "Magic Dust", and finally just "Dust". This is the only one that doesn't involve Angel Dust. The 80s was a weird time for Garfield.Our irascible friend here normally "curses" you with Half-Magic if you toss magic powder into his... soup? Instead, we get a full heart container, which I'm more than happy with.And that's everything I can do. With the items we have, there are no more overworld treasures to find and we're completely out of dungeons. However, we did manage to find all the crystals this episode...
We have a lot to recap this time:
Big finds this episode include the Ice Rod, the Red Mail, and the Magic Powder. We're also blessed with two new heart containers: one from a full heart, and the other from completing a set of pieces. Last and certainly least, we collected three bomb-bag upgrades and a big quiver upgrade.
As for dungeons, there's only two left after this entry's big push: Ganon's Tower, normally the last port of call in a Link to the Past playthrough; and Misery Mire, which is still inaccessible without the Quake Medallion. I could theoretically complete the Tower, fight Ganon, and be done with the game without ever setting foot in Misery Mire, but I'm aiming for a full inventory set if I can manage it.
The Mushroom, the Shovel, the Cape, the Quake Medallion, and the Book of Mudora are all still conspicuously absent, as is the much desired Golden Sword upgrade. I hope the Tower yields at least some of those, along with that last bottle, the Ether Medallion, and the Magic Boomerang. There's also four heart pieces and three full heart containers remaining...
Next Time, on A Randomized Link to the Past: Could this be the end of Garflink and Friends? The final boss is in sight, but Ganon's Tower is a very big dungeon with a whole lot of chests. Expect a few detours at the very least.
