I can't really describe the last few hours of this game without spoilers!!! So, just some advanced warning.
Yesterday, I finally got to Ganon's Tower. That was mostly because I wanted to find every piece of heart, conquer every platform, submarine, and other piece of territory on the map. I only wish that a few more of them had decent rewards.
You end up back at Hyrule Castle, which is somehow underwater. I'd have to say that the only thing that really made sense to me at that point was to go inside and look for Zelda. She was supposed to be "safely" locked in a basement with a big statue of Link on the top (How did they know the hero was going to look like Link, in order to build a statue of him?). I knew from unmarked spoilers on Miiverse that the castle looks damaged inside (pillars knocked over, your statue broken in a few pieces).
It looks like you can just run over to Zelda where she was the last time you left the castle. Instead, she disappears for some reason (presumably, Ganondorf warps her away?). Then you're in a ring of fire with what should be the third type of Darknut - their "Mighty" captains who wear a cape and have red armor. Their helmet might be different, too. I don't know if I cut the cape off one or actually burned it off the second enemy with a fire arrow.
Prior to that fight, there was an electric fence barrier stopping you from going outside the back door of the castle. Once you beat the Darknuts, the electric barrier fades away without much "logical" explanation or needing to deactivate it.
Even at that point, I went out to the bridge and I was still STUCK by this strange purple barrier. On a side note, people have actually found ways to "clip" or "glitch" through that barrier and beat the game in record amounts of time.
Anyway, I went back to the boat and he gave me the hint that my sword should destroy the barrier. That was NOT very intuitive! I was trying to charge up a spin attack, but it seemed like a programmed animation/cutscene slashed at thin air, and then they zoomed out to see the barrier kind of shattering like glass. Ohhkay.
Once you get outside the castle, I was hoping to be able to explore ruined Hyrule. Instead, it just feels like this area that's forcing you down a path to Ganon's Tower.
Inside the tower, I wasn't sure what to expect. Can you really call it the final "dungeon"? I don't think there's a map at all, since it might be hard to get lost. There's basically one room on the ground floor with four rope bridges. The guards are kind of a joke, but I think they still hit me a few times. You can sort of guess what theme is inside each door by the decorations? It wasn't very obvious to me, though. I started with the "Wind Temple" room, which apparently uses wooden windmills/fans. That's your final temple in the overworld, but it didn't feel like a hard puzzle. You basically just spring yourself up in the air and glide over two moving barriers with razor blades. Then I felt stuck in front of a wall that was too high, and no obvious way to climb it. There may have been two ground level enemies, or none. Link's eyes were looking up, and it turned out there were hookshot targets that lift you up to the boss door. The boss fights don't really change from the regular game to the tower, which confuses me when they've done that in other Zelda games. I needed a potion to stay alive against the sand snake where you kind of hook it in the tongue and slash away.
One disorienting thing is how, during that replay of the boss fight, it basically erases all of your button mappings for the items. That could be due to how you're not supposed to have all of the tools to fight previous bosses (based on when they're earned in the game), but why couldn't they have made some way to fight the boss differently with the extra items? In any case, by the second or third time that your items disappear from the buttons, you're ready to throw the controller or something.
I forget if fire or the Earth Temple hall were next. Fire actually gave me a little bit of trouble. It's not hard to figure out what they want you to do (swing from some really tall horizontal poles), but the execution was weird. You can't chain your swings together, like with the grappling beam in a "Metroid" game. You'll have to land on some platforms that seem permanent and stationary. I was overshooting them and then using the Deku Leaf to float back and correct the landings. I think the wall is so high at the end that it forces you to "choke up" by climbing the rope and I may have needed the leaf again to get across. The boss battle didn't feel too hard. It's just weird how the dragon Valoo shouldn't be in this tower, but he ends up helping you again. The final phase felt really short, maybe because the Master Sword deals more damage than the standard attack when you started the game?
I forgot to mention how each boss that you clear lights up a hieroglyph of the boss on the door to the next area.
The "Earth Temple" hallway is marked by skulls. That room felt more tedious than "hard." You're trying to dodge graves that keep falling down. A bunch are empty. Others keep giving you magic energy for some reason (you don't use magic in this room?!!). The puzzle element made it so that I destroyed the guys I needed to use as a statue to hold down a switch, so I had to leave and come back to respawn everything. Then you think you'll be able to climb the last stairway and a Stalfos pops up just to be annoying and delay you! There are shafts of light you need to reflect in order to stun or turn enemies to stone, and they're in a place where it seems almost impossible to reflect that light off your shield and down these passages of endless vertical coffins.
That boss probably took the longest amount of time, since at first, I was just rolling him into spikes around the walls. Actually, those are there to damage YOU when he uses a blowing attack. The only thing that seems to separate him into smaller Poes are the pillars covered in spikes.
I guess the forest area was last, with vines around the door? That may have been the second easiest puzzle, even though I made a mistake on the first attempt. It surprised me how they didn't use the cannon flowers at all (after those were really frustrating inside the area with the Deku Tree). They just strung together the platforms that roll along a rope and made you bring them to you (spin the switch in the corner). Then, face the opposite way and blow yourself forward. A few weird tree branches move around, and you need to wait for one to rise up before clearing the big wall. That boss felt REALLY easy - again, I guess because my sword has more power now?
So, you go through all of that and get to a stairway. Ho, hum, I guess? I forget if there were many hard enemies on the stairs. What didn't really make sense was how the stairs stretch a LONG way on a straight diagonal path, like they wouldn't fit inside a round, narrow tower? I picture the castle from "Ocarina of Time" making you go around in a circle up the stairs, and that game was much older than "Wind Waker HD"!!
You get to another flat area, and that was where I saved last night. Before I saved, I went to this one room where they were pointing out the light fixtures in a certain order. I felt like they needed fire arrows to fully light them, but you were supposed to be interpreting the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4. Again, what is "intuitive" about this final area?
It turns out how the light fixture things with candles aren't that important, because the room across from that shows you crystal switches in the same order. At first, I was shooting them with arrows, but they wouldn't stay lit. Then I remembered how you can hit four things in one pass with the boomerang, and that ended up working. You go through all of that, and it surprises Link to see his boat showing up. That's actually an optional way to warp back to the Forsaken Fortress and the "overworld," which doesn't seem like it's the right distance from Hyrule Castle (which you enter from Tower of the Gods) to Ganon's Tower with this warp to quadrant A1. I actually did go back to hand in a few pictures and to restock on potions.
Going back to the other room with the partially lit candles, it's still not "intuitive" that you jump down a hole to fight a miniboss. Plus, what if you never read this plaque or tombstone over in the left corner? It was talking about the helm of the sword pointing the way, or something weird. I pretty much "cheated" and consulted a guide/wiki last night after failing in that part and ending up in the center of the same room at the top of the stairs. It turns out how you fight Phantom Ganon. It had been so long since the first fight, that I don't know if he uses a new trick/strategy. Sometimes he'll attack with pink stuff (six to eight balls of it), and you're supposed to somehow deflect that back at him while not getting hit yourself. My timing either wasn't good, or I dodged to the side after hitting maybe one or two small balls towards him. The easier way to beat him was to play the same game as in "Ocarina of Time" against the human Ganondorf - keep playing high speed "tennis" with a glowing blue ball until it smacks him in the face.
Well, he'll drop a sword after you damage him. You're supposed to look where the handle (hilt) is sort of "pointing," based on the riddle from the tombstone before you jumped down a hole/pit. It turns out, if you keep picking the right door, you'll get to repeat that fight about seven more times!! He never changes his attacks, so what's the point?
Then, you win an item, which was pretty neat (light arrows). How useful are they this late in the game, though? Next, you're back to the room where you started. What gives? There's still a weird brick wall that won't let you go forward. Oh, OK. Here's Phantom Ganon up in this room. Do the light arrows work on him? Yes. Now they're a one shot kill, which felt really cheap. I just beat him seven or eight other times, to get this one shot kill item, and he dared to challenge me again? I think you need his sword to slash the weird "brick wall" barrier, which I may not have known without reading IGN's guide/wiki.
So, remember how we took a long diagonal stairway to get to that second main room? Why does another long, diagonal stairway extend in front of it? I could maybe see if it angled the opposite direction as the first staircase, but now it just didn't make sense with the architecture of a tower.
On the stairs, I felt like taking my time with enemies, rather than killing them with one light arrow each.
You come to these huge set of doors, and I had already spoiled part of what happens inside.
What I didn't know was that it finally showed some really neat scenes that built upon the story. It's actually creepy for this to be a bedroom (Ganon/Ganondorf's bedroom?) and child-aged Zelda is sleeping there? Is he a pedophile or something? She's dreaming about oceans and a flood. Ganondorf basically accuses the "gods" of this world of killing their own creatures with a big flood, just to try and wipe out one evil guy.
That's not actually the final boss yet. First, you face a weird "puppet." His first form is described as a pig in the guide I was reading, but why would a pig have a long tail like a Tyrannosaurus? It was annoying how I cut all the strings (hard to aim, even with my GamePad), and then I wasn't finding his weak spot. I had to "cheat" with the guide and figure out that the tail is vulnerable to light arrows. Again, WHO would guess this stuff? What hints does the game give you?
It kind of stunk how knowing his weak spot made the rest of the fight sort of anticlimactic? He becomes a "spider" and hangs from the ceiling. What I figured out there, without needing to look in a guide, was how he reflects off the water on the floor, and you have just enough time to roll into the area where his tail orb thing is going to land. Then, his last form is supposed to be a caterpillar. Do real caterpillars slide around and try to ram you into the wall? I have no idea how those three shots hit his tail - especially the third one. Supposedly, I think you can make him stop moving by bombing his mouth? It was just a bizarre boss.
At that point, I saw this rope, but I couldn't grab it. Then, when I went to check the guide, it mentioned climbing up. Literally, as soon as I unpaused, Link autojumped off of what used to be the bed/mattress and onto the rope. That was either cool or tedious. Almost from the beginning of the game, the pirates were teaching you to swing on ropes. This was more about stopping the rope and climbing a LOOOOONG way. Even after that, why do they make you grappling hook and climb two more levels?
I could see this open window, but it wasn't obvious at first how to get there. Up close you can kind of see the hookshot circles.
I think that's when it got good or great?!! The cutscene seemed to be Ganondorf giving a weird explanation of why he would hate the wind so much. He grew up in the desert, so it would overheat you during the daylight, and then make you cold after sunset. I'm not sure if that's good enough motivation for him to be an insane villain, but at least it made sense?
Zelda was still asleep. I couldn't tell what he did to her, actually. She apologized at some point for oversleeping, which I thought was a nod to other games where a fairy is trying to wake up a tired Link.
I couldn't really understand what happened after that point. The King finally appears again. He asks the goddesses of the Triforce to basically flood the whole place and kill everyone? I thought he was a good guy?
Ganondorf laughs like a mentally ill or unstable person. Then, I had to fight him with waterfalls pouring down. For some reason, Zelda ended up with my bow and arrow? I could only use the sword (which he previously knocked away!!!)?
I wouldn't say he was a "hard" boss. He did kill me the first time. In the second fight, I got revived by a fairy, but also made it to the second "stage." First, Ganondorf commits "child abuse" against Zelda, which was pretty disgusting. I forget why she regains consciousness. Then she's sort of saying, "We need to team up all of a sudden." So, she's trying to hit me with the light arrows. Somehow, they have an electrocution effect on Link? It was kind of obvious that you need to shield and deflect the light at Ganondorf, but not how tapping A at just the right time finishes the battle. It felt accidental when I hit A to activate the final scenes.
So, after that, I was still trying to figure out the story. The King is acting like he's similar to Ganondorf, because he wanted to return to the "glory days" of Hyrule, even though it seems like those days are gone and can't return. It was feeling like almost the "perfect" thing to hear on the first day of a new year? No matter how much you liked 2017, you can't go back to 2017?
I don't know why he wanted the kids to "forgive" him, because he left them the legacy of a ruined or flooded world? Isn't he the one who told the goddesses to flood everything? It felt like global warming "propaganda" somehow. Right about now, our "high" temperature has been around 20 for a few days? And the Earth keeps getting hotter?
What it looked like to me was how the King wanted Link and Zelda to discover their own new land (but it wouldn't be Hyrule). Then, he kind of stays behind to "commit suicide" in the flood? Link just has an invisible shield helping him escape.
The programmers' names roll by, and they keep showing all the characters in these air bubbles - pretty cool.
So, the moment when I started to tear up (couldn't really get to crying) seemed to be when Link is back in his boat (which I thought was the King?). The eyes aren't glowing, so maybe the King's spirit left the boat, and it's just normal wood now? Zelda is back to dressing like Tetra (Why?). Medli and Makar are on her pirate ship for some reason. They leave the shore of Outset Island, presumably for this "new land" that's not Hyrule. Probably based on a cutscene from the early part of the game, I (human me - not Link) waved to my "sister" on the TV. Then, she ran out on the dock (with a purple pirate/skull dress now?) and waved to ME.
All I can say is, as long as you can figure things out that feel totally "unintuitive," or you consult a guide for some of the weirder stuff (shooting down a "Lakitu" guy, to teach you a song, which warps you inside a volcano, where you receive fire and ice arrows as gifts??!!!), this was an AMAZING video game experience. I played a total of 55 times (so far). I must've collected about 129 of the 134 statues. I went everywhere on the map. It definitely wasn't that efficient, since I felt impatient or frustrated a few times - Why did I sail over here, when I can't even reach that island without the hookshot? The story was kind of thin, or I'd have to read an explanation of what actually happened. The thing is, it feels like your actions are "writing" the story, rather than following a script to unlock a few movies along the way. I'd have to score it around a 9.5, and make it the second best Zelda game that I've played to completion. There are games like "A Link to the Past" and the sequel from NES where I've NEVER played them. I own "Breath of the Wild," but it's still in the wrapper. I haven't been able to beat the original, and I stopped somewhere in the middle of "Skyward Sword." I actually liked the motion controls of "Skyward Sword," while those seem to be the part that gets criticized by other fans of the series. "Twilight Princess" just couldn't keep me interested in the story, and I HATED getting stuck as a wolf, or how certain things were only possible in wolf form. Yet, I bought the HD version? (ROTFL!!!!!)
It's been a while since I played "Ocarina of Time," so the story may not really hold up, or the puzzles could seem too easy at this point. I just remember how that game felt like something was at stake for almost everyone in the game world. I cared about the narcissistic people near the castle. I cared about the weird Zora people (even though Princess Ruto had a crush on me?). I cared about the Gorons. There weren't that many forgettable or corny people. This game sort of felt like that, but it was like you only saw one Zora in a flashback, and one Kokiri elf in a flashback, and the main new species were some birds who mostly look alike, except for the ones you end up liking the most (Komali and Medli). I don't think there were any Gerudos this time, besides Ganon/Ganondorf.
So, there you go. That was the first game I've almost played to 100% completion on Wii U, and it definitely didn't disappoint. I mean, there are some games, even from the NES era, where I wonder if I'll EVER achieve 100% completion without watching how to clear certain Mario levels on YouTube.
Now I definitely need to get back to "real" life and goals for 2018.
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