It's another Monday, so it's time to see how Garflink is getting along on this increasingly forlorn The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past randomizer playthrough. If you want to know what a randomizer is and what it entails, I'd highly recommend starting with the first episode and working your way back to here, through all the highs and the lows. Mostly the latter right now.

Let's not split hairs: we are in dire straits here. There are no more accessible dungeons as of last episode and very few places in the overworld left to check. Unless I find a progress-enabling item in this last sweep of the map, I could be scrapping this whole exercise as folly. I'll guess we'll see which way the cat jumps. Drama!

Side-Note: The Ocarina, or the Flute, is a musical instrument that is normally found after completing the sub-story (and sob story) of the flute kid. It allows the player to awaken the fast travel bird in the middle of Kakariko Village, who will take Garflink to one of a number of locations across the Light World. We'll also need it to access Misery Mire eventually, but we'll also need a few other items for that dungeon too. For now, I'm just going to appreciate that I don't have to walk everywhere from the three respawn locations alone.

Side-Note: The Titan's Mitt is an upgraded Power Glove, capable of picking up the dark-tinted rocks across the overworld. It's normally found in the Thieves' Town dungeon, which is instead where we found the Bow, the Tempered Sword, and the Cane of Somaria last episode (so no complaints here).

I'm not kidding when I say this is probably the most useful progress-related item left to find in this run: not only can I now access the rest of the Dark Overworld, including Misery Mire and the other half of Death Mountain, but there's a number of hidden locations to find and side-quests to complete with this thing, including reuniting the blacksmith brothers and recovering the special blue chest. For the first time in a while, this playthrough has some darn momentum.

Side-Note: The Lantern is used to provide a small cone of light in dark areas, and can also be used to ignite torches. It's normally the first item you find in the game, all the way back in Link's house during the intro. Figures it'd take half the game before I found it, and after I already painstakingly traversed the most dangerous pitch-black areas of the game.

Pro-tip for others playing this particular randomizer: there are no dark areas that you are forced to pass through before you can find the Lantern. Kinda wish I knew that before starting.

Side-Note: The Fire Rod is a weapon that can be used both for offense and for lighting distant torches. It's normally found in Skull Woods, and is required to access the second half of that dungeon. If I hadn't found the Lantern just moments earlier, I might say that the light-producing effects might be more use to me than roasting enemies. I'm kind of set in the weapons department, to put it lightly (and silvery).

Side-Note: The Blue Mail is the first armor upgrade in the game, and reduces all damage by half. It's usually found in the Ice Palace. Unlike the blue suits of later games, it doesn't afford me any extra protection against ice magic or make swimming any easier. Speaking of easier, I'm far more confident about the rest of the game's bosses wearing this thing - until now, I was a little apprehensive about some of the Dark World's latter dungeons.

Side-Note: The Bombos Medallion is one of three powerful screen-clearing magical weapons, each requiring a large fraction of the magic gauge. Normally, you'd have to travel to just outside the desert in the Dark World and Magic Mirror onto a ledge in the Light World, then use the Book of Mudora on the tablet up there. The randomizer took a shortcut.

In the original game, the Bombos Medallion was the only one of the trio you didn't need in order to access a dungeon, but there's no guarantees in a randomizer run.

Plenty to review here:

• A veritable treasure trove this time: the Lantern, the Flute/Ocarina, the Blue Mail, the Bombos Medallion, the Fire Rod, and - most importantly - the Titan's Mitt. We're also another heart up, we have another bottle to rely on, and we can now fit a few more Silver Arrows in our quiver.
• We're done with all the Light World dungeons too! Let's do our now customary dungeon check-in:

1. The Swamp Palace (Dark 2): I can walk inside, but I can't get past the first room without the Zora Flippers. (Which now replace the Titan's Mitt as the MVP of the remaining items.)
2. Skull Woods (Dark 3): The second half of Skull Woods is now accessible. I'll probably head straight there after Turtle Rock.
3. Ice Palace (Dark 5): Inaccessible without the Zora Flippers. It's in the middle of a big lake, after all.
4. Misery Mire (Dark 6): We've solved the problem of reaching the dungeon, but we still need the Quake Medallion to actually get inside.
5. Turtle Rock (Dark 7): It's now accessible. We're inside and ready to go for the next episode.

• Also worth following up: The blacksmith brothers and the locked chest. There's a secret cave in the Dark World close to the Blacksmith's home too.

Next Time, on A Randomized Link to the Past: We have some breathing room now. The second half of Skull Woods and the entirety of Turtle Rock is now open to us, so that's a whole bunch of possible new items to find in addition to moving the main game progression forward. The run doesn't look quite as doomed as it once did; in fact, I'd probably go so far as to suggest that it's all downhill from here. But like in a good way.

Well I'm glad to see you got a lot of necessary items this episode. Since you started this series I've downloaded and now beaten a randomized game. I beat the game with all the inventory items and max hearts in 15 hours, which I think is pretty good considering I haven't played this game in like eight years, and even then I never beat the game. I'm proud of myself even though I did watch a couple videos for help.

Also, this is weirdly enough the first Zelda game I've ever beaten, even though I consider myself a Zelda fan. I've watched let's plays of most of the Zelda games, but it was nice to beat one myself for a change. Now it's time to get back to Breath of the Wild, which I'm still nowhere close to completing at over 130 hours.

Awesome, glad the Titan's Mitt finally showed up. Totally forgot it was possible to get to that gravestone without it; there's a nice sort of irony to it being hidden in a place it's easy to think is inaccessible without it.

@cubidog: It's a hell of a thing to beat Link to the Past for the first time with a randomizer run, but then the core game is very "traditional Zelda". If you've played enough of its sequels, the original game probably won't throw too many surprises at you. Still, getting through without knowing where half the secrets are sounds like it would be challenging. Kudos.

@generic_username:Yeah, I'd written that one off a few times before realizing I'd already figured out a way past the rocks to get to that item on the ledge behind the graveyard. There's so many weird cases I'm finding - like getting into Desert Palace via the back door - where I think I need a specific item but actually don't. I'm slightly worried that the Zora Flippers might be somewhere weird that would normally require swimming but perhaps doesn't.

At any rate, thanks for your brainstorming ideas. Hopefully I won't get as close to stuck again for the rest of the run, even if it will mute the drama somewhat.