It’s really tempting to sequence break at this point, knowing what’s in store in the next three dungeons. Dungeon #4 has a very high reward to difficulty ratio, and doing it first makes #2 and #3 easier. But, since I’m doing story, I should do them in order.
Swamp Palace
So we start with the Swamp Palace. This palace has several sections where Link needs to flood a hallway to progress, including one at the beginning where he has to go to the Light World and open the gate there to even get started. There’s one near the end where he needs to open a drain to proceed, too. New enemies are mostly aquatic creatures, including balls of water that go flying all over the place trying to hit Link. The treasure is the hookshot, which is a useful tool – it does just about everything the boomerang does and more – but also incredibly fun to use. (BOING!) And it’s a key part of defeating the boss, Arrghus, which kind of resembles a Patra. The maiden tells Link more about Ganon and the Triforce1, and that there are other warp points in the world, which I’ve been using, so, well, thanks.
Now that Link has the hookshot, he can easily get the one near the cave where the path to Death Mountain is in the Light World. He has to hookshot over a gap, then use the cape to bypass a bumper, and then he’s through to the heart piece.
Skull Woods
With that heart piece, it’s on to the dungeon in Skull Woods, the counterpart of the Lost Woods. This dungeon is in three distinct sections, and if it weren’t for my completionist tendencies, the first two can be mostly skipped. Section two has the Big Key, which is used in section one to open the chest and get the Fire Rod. Then pass back through section two, use the fire rod to burn the long thing sticking out of the final section’s mouth, and go in. There are three new enemies here: First, Gibdos make their return to the series, and die in a single shot from the Fire Rod. (If there’s two or more on screen, Bombos comes in very handy.) Second, we have Rabbit Beams, which temporarily cancel out the Moon Pearl if they hit Link. And finally, there’s… well, they’re still called Wallmasters, but they drop from the ceiling instead of coming out of the walls. Still annoying. The boss is Mothula, a giant moth, the Moldorm’s main competition for my least favorite boss in the game. The floor is constantly moving and traps try to hit Link, all while Mothula’s doing its thing. The Fire Rod is the easiest weapon to use here. The maiden tells Link more about the Hero prophecy: since Ganon, an evil person, got the Triforce, a Hero was destined to appear with the power to stop him.
Thieves’ Town
There’s nothing to do in the overworld, so it’s on to dungeon #4, Thieves’ Town, found under a gargoyle statue where the weathercock is/was in the Light World. The dungeon opens with four huge rooms which contain all the map, compass, and Big Key. After that, if you know what to do, the dungeon is very linear, but someone who doesn’t know what’s going on would likely be confused, especially with the sequence where Link goes to the upper floor, bombs a certain patch of floor, then backtracks. The dungeon has another signature moment: the maiden appears to be held in a jail cell rather than a crystal, but it’s the boss, Blind, in disguise. If he’s dragged to the boss room, which should have a brightly lit floor patch by now, he’ll drop the disguise and fight Link2. The fight is somewhat reminiscent of Gleeoks: heads fly off and continue to attack while the fight continues. Once recovered, the real maiden tells Link that the Knights were nearly wiped out by the Imprisoning War, and he may be the last of the Knights’ bloodline.
The prize in Thieves’ Town was the Titan’s Mitt, which opens up the rest of the dungeons. But first, there’s questing to do.
Next: The hardest dungeon in the game.